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MEMOIR 



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THE LIFE 



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PETER THE GREAT. 



JOHN BARROW, ESQ., 
II 

SECRETARY TO THE ADMIRALTY, AUTHOR OF " PITCAIRK'S ISLAND 
AND ITS INHABITANTS," &.C. 




NEW. YORK : 
PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS. 

NO. 82 CLIFF- STREET. 



1839. 



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UK 

MAR 2 1944 



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CONTENTS. 



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j Preface - Page 9 

CHAPTER I. 

I The Birth of the Tzar Peter I.— The Intrigues of his Family- 
Revolt of the Strelitzes or Russian Janizaries — The Regency 
of Sophia — The Tzar ascends the Throne 17 

CHAPTER n. 

JThe Tzar creates a Navy, and new-models his AiTny — Le Fort 
— Menzikoff— Gordon— First Attack on Azoph fails — The sec- 
ond succeeds — Conspiracy discovered and defeated - - 31 

CHAPTER m. 

The Tzar Peter travels into Holland — His Residence at Zaan- 
dam - 52 

CHAPTER IV. 
The Tzar Peter visits England * ... 72 

CHAPTER V. 

The Tzar inflicts dreadful Punishment on the Conspirators — 

Commences his System of Reform — Death of Le Fort 

Prepares a large Fleet at Voronitz, on the Don — Commences 
a War with Sweden 99 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Battle of Narva — Peter's Success against the Swedes — 
History of Catharine 122 

CHAPTER VII. 

Continued Successes ov( r the Swedes — Peter lays the Founda- 
tion of St. Petersburg- -His Saxon Ally deprived of the Crowa 



8 CONTENTS. 

of Poland — Takes Dorpt, and Narva, and Mittau — Augustus 
makes Peace with Charles — Disgraceful Conduct of the former 
— Seizure and inhuman Death of Patkul — Masterly Manoeuvre 
of Peter— Position of the Russian and Swedish Armies - 144 

CHAPTER VIII. 
The Battle of Pultowa 167 

CHAPTER IX. 
The Battle of the Pruth - 185 

CHAPTER X. 

The Tzar's Naval Victory over the Swedes — Rejoicings — A 
Russian Entertainment — Death of the Consort of Alexis — 
The Tzarina Catharine brings Peter a Son — Strange Rejoi- 
cings — Progressive Improvements at Petersburg - - - 207 

CHAPTER XI. 

Charles Xil. returns to Sweden— The Tzar visits Holland, 
France, and Prussia 233 

CHAPTER XII. 
The Trial, Condemnation, and Death of the Tzarovitz Alexis 24^ 

CHAPTER Xni. 

The Peace of Neustadt— Peter entreated to accept the Titles of 
Emperor, Great, and Father of his Country — Several new In- 
stitutions and Manufactories established— An Embassy sent 
to China — Assemblies, or Soirees, mstituted — Peter's Mode 
of Livmg — Provides for the Succession --.--- 271 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Peter directs his views towards Persia — Failure of the Expedi- 
tion—Trial and Punishment of certain Delinquents— Celebra- 
tion of the " Little Grandsire," the first germ of the Russian 
Navy - 287 

CHAPTER XV. 

The Coronation of Catharine — Sickness and Death of Peter the 
Great— His Character and Epitaph 302 



PREFACE. 



The author or compiler of the following Biogra- 
phical Memoir has done little more than bring together 
and arrange the scattered fragments of histories, 
lives, anecdotes, and notices, in manuscript or in 
print, of one of the most extraordinary characters 
that ever appeared on the great theatre of the world, 
in any age or country : a being full of contradictions, 
yet consistent in all that he did ; a promoter of litera- 
ture, arts, and sciences, yet without education himself; 
the civilizer of his people, "he gave a polish," says 
Voltaire, " to his nation, and was himself a savage ;'* 
he taught his people the art of war, of which he was 
himself ignorant ; from the first glance of a small 
cock-boat, at the distance of five hundred miles from 
the nearest sea, he became an expert ship-builder, 
created a powerful fleet, partly constructed with his 
own hands, made himself an active and expert sailor, 
a skilful pilot, a great captain : in short, he changed 
the manners, the habits, the laws of the people, and 
the very face of the country. 

A modern French writer has given a catalogue of 
no less than ninety-five authors who have treated of 
Peter the Great, and concludes it with three &c,'s. 
About one-fourth of that number may have been con- 



/ 



\/ n 



X PREFACE. 

suited on the present occasion, of which the principal 
ones are the following : — 

Journal de Pierre le Grand, depuis Pannee 1698, 
jusqu^d la Conclusion de la Paix de Neustadt, Ecrit 
j)ar Lui-meme. — This remarkable work w^as intended 
to be published after the death of Peter, by his sur- 
viving spouse, the Empress Catharine ; but it is sup- 
posed her short reign put a stop to it. Her namesake, 
Catharine 11., however, caused it to be published at 
Petersburg in the year 1770, and it was translated 
and published at Berlin in 1773. It contains a jour- 
nal of all his military movements, battles, sieges, 
distribution of his forces, triumphs, promotions, — and, 
in short, all the principal transactions in which he 
was engaged during the period mentioned in the title- 
page. Tlie simplicity of the narrative, the frank 
avowal of the mistakes he committed, the gratitude 
he constantly expresses to the Supreme Disposer of 
events, in his reverses, as well as in his successes — ^ 
all prove the perfect sincerity as well as the truth of 
the narrative. To the historian of his military pro- 
gress and conquests this journal of the Emperor 
must always be invaluable. 

The History of Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia. 
By Alexander Gordon of Achintoul, several years a 
Major-general in the Tzar\s service. — General Gordon 
was personally acquainted with many of the exploits 
of the Tzar Peter narrated in his history. He re- 
ceived a commission from him as major about the 
ear 1693 or 1694, was speedily promoted to the 
rank of lieutenant-colonel, and was present at the 
taking of Asoph in 1698. He was taken prisoner at 
the battle of Narva, and sent into Sweden, where he 
was detained for several years. On his return, he 
was advanced to the rank of major-general, and sent 



PREFACE. Xl 

into Poland ; but on hearing of his father's death, he 
obtained permission in 1711 to quit the Russian 
service and return to his native country, Scotland. 
That portion only of his work, therefore, which relates 
to the period when he was actually in service can 
be considered as valuable ; the rest is founded 
on authorities already published at the time of his 
writing. 

Travels from St. Petersburg in Russia to various 
p,arts of Asia. By John Bell, of Antermony. — Honest 

- John Bell is almost proverbially known as the most 
faithful of travellers. In the year 1719 he was 
attached, in a medical capacity, to an embassy sent 
hf Peter the Great to Kang-hes, Emperor of China,. 

^and published a very interesting account of the jour- 
ney and the transactions of the mission in Pekin. 
In the year 1722 he accompanied the army of Russia, 
under the immediate command of the Tzar Peter, to 
the shores of the Caspian, of which journey he pub- 
lished a " Succinct Relation," containing some curious 
and interesting incidents, relating to that campaign, 
connected with the manners and character of Peter 
and Catharine, who accompanied him. 

Memoirs of Peter Henry Bruce, Usq., a military 
oMcer in the services of Prussia, Russia, and Great 
/Britain ; containing an account of his travels, <SfC. ; as 
also several very interesting private anecdotes of the 
Tzar Peter I. of Russia. — ^Ir. Bruce tells us his 
Journal was originally written in German, his native 
language,* and that in the year 1755, on liis retire- 
ment, he translated it into English. In 1 782 it was 
published for the benefit of his widow. Captain 
Bruce had many opportunities of seeing and knowing 

* His father was in the service of Prussia, wh.ere he was boriL 



vt 



XU PREFACE. 

a great deal of the Tzar and his family. He served 
as military instructer to the son of the unfortunate 
Tzarovitz Alexis, was aid-de-camp to General Weyde, 
and accompanied the Tzar on his expedition to the 
shores of the Caspan, which sea he circumnavigated, 
and surveyed its coasts. His narrative is written 
with great simplicity, if not with scrupulous accuracy, 
-—the language being somewhat loose, and the dates 
not always correct. There are several passages in 
his book which must have been transcribed, either by 
himself or his publisher, from preceding authors ; 
but those portions which describe what he witnessed 
in his own person are highly interesting, and worthy 
of all credit. 

Memoir es du Regne de Pierre le Grand, Empereiir 
de Russie, Pere de la Patrie, <Sfc. Par le Boyar Iwan 
Nestesuranoi. 4 vols. Amsterdam, 1726. — Though 
this work bears a fictitious name, it is, notwithstand- 
ing, perfectly genuine and authentic ; and being pub- 
lished in the year after the death of Peter the Great, 
and while Catharine and MenzikofF were still living, 

may be considered the very first History of Peter 
the Great, with the exception of some brief notices 
by Webber. Nestesuranoi is meant as the anagram 
of Jean Rousset, his real name. This gentleman 
fled from France to Amsterdam, on the revocation of 
the Edict of Nantz. He was a most indefatigable 
compiler, journalist, historian, politician, and contro- 
versialist. For his History of the Life of Peter, he 
was made by the court of Russia a counsellor of the 
imperial chancery ; and for taking up the cause of 
the Prince of Orange, was created counsellor extra- 
ordinary and historiographer to the stadtholder. 

The History of the Life of Peter /., Emperor of 
Russia. By John Mottley^ Esq. — John Mottley was 



PREFACE. Xlll 

the son of Colonel Mottley, who followed the fortunes 
of King James II. into France ; from writing mis- 
cellaneous and dramatic pieces for his amusement, he 
was, in consequence of his father's misfortunes, com- 
pelled to use his pen for a maintenance ; and his pro- 
ductions met with the patronage of Queen Caroline 
and the court. His Life of Peter the Great is, in 
many parts of it, a translation of the work of Nes- 
tesuranoi, with the addition of several incidents and 
anecdotes, and also of many official and other docu- 
ments, compiled from the journals of the day. It 
went through two editions, — the first, a folio, in one 
volume ; the second, a small octavo, in three volumes. 
History of the Russian Empire under Peter the 
Great. By M. de Voltaire, — This celebrated writer 
would appear to have been unjustly censured with 
regard to this history : it has been called a romance, 
a tissue of idle stories and anecdotes not founded m 
fact, and a systematic suppression of the truth. In 
the perusal of a multitude of authors, the compiler 
can safely assert that, as far as concerns the facts 
stated by Voltaire, he has authority for all of them ; 
his opinions are, of course, his own. But he is 
accused by the Russians of not having made use of 
half the manuscripts he received by order of the 
Empress Catharine. The chamberlain, Schowalof, 
demanded of him by letter, — 1st. Why he had only 
made use of so small a portion of the rich materials 
sent to him? — 2d. Why he had mutilated the facts 
stated in the manuscripts ; and why he had not made 
use of the anecdotes (Staehlin's) in his possession 1 
And, 3d. WTiy he had omitted the names of several 
great persons, and so disfigured those he had been 
pleased to name, that they were scarcely to be dis- 
tinguished as the persons intended % 
B 



XIV PREFACE* 

To the first question Voltaire answered, that it was 
not his custom to copy imphcitly any manuscripts that 
might be sent to him. To the second, that he must 
be governed by the best information he could procure ; 
that the private life of Peter did not come within the 
limits of his plan, and consequently the anecdotes 
were not available ; and, as to the third reproach, he 
sarcastically observes, " as far as relates to the dis- 
figuring of the proper names, I suppose it is a German 
who reproaches me with it. — I wish him more wit 
and fewer consonants." 

The Journal of Pet^r the Great was sent to Vol- 
taire in manuscript, and whenever he has made use 
of it he has done so faithfully and accurately. But 
he is highly blameable in casting a stigma on what 
he calls " pretended histories of Peter the Great, 
most of which have been compiled from gazettes ;" 
and his designating " that which was printed at Am- 
sterdam, in four volumes, under the name of the 
Boyar Nestesuranoi," as " one of those impositions 
too frequently practised by booksellers." The name 
is certainly an imposition, as we have noticed ; but 
all the documents it contains, and the history con- 
nected with, and drawn from, those documents, are 
authentic. But that which renders Voltaire the more 
blameable in his censure is, that the foundation of his 
own history, the arrangement, and in many places 
the language, are drawn from this said work of Nes- 
tesuranoi, and his copyist Colonel John Mottley. 
This is disingenuous, and unworthy the high charac- 
ter of Voltaire. 

Rusland en de Nederlanden Beschoud in derselver 
Wederkeerige Betrekkingen door Mr. Jacohus Scheie 
tema. 4 vols. — These volumes contain chiefly an 
historical account of the commercial intercourse be- 



PREFACE. XV 

tween Holland and Russia, from its commencement 
to the death of Peter the Great. This work is chiefly- 
interesting from the details given of the conduct and 
proceedings of this extraordinary man during his 
residence in Plolland, taken from authentiy docu- 
ments, and particularly from NoomeTi's Diary of the 
Residence of the Tzar Peter at Zaandam. It does 
not appear to have been translated either into French 
or English. 

Original Anecdotes of Peter the Great^ collected 
from the conversation of several persons of distinction 
at Petersburg and Moscow. By M. Stcehlin, member 
of the Imperial Academy at Petersburg. — About ten 
years after the death of Peter the Great, that is in 
the year 1735, M. Stjehlin w^as invited to fill a seat 
in the Academy of Sciences at Petersburg. He lived 
at the house of the Count of Lynar, envoy-extraor- 
dinary from King Augustus of Poland to the court 
of Russia, where he tells us he became acquainted 
with many persons of distinction, as well foreigners 
as Russians, several of whom had not only served in 
the fleet and army, or held civil employments under 
Peter the Great, but had also been much about his 
person. He was likewise honoured with the appoint- 
ment of tutor, and afterward librarian, to the Great 
Duke Peter Feodorovitz. These situations afforded 
him opportunities of collecting anecdotes concerning 
the manners, character, and actions, both as regarded 
the public and private life of the Tzar Peter; they 
amount in number to more than one hundred, many 
of which are highly interesting, and well vouched for 
by most respectable authorities. 

In addition to these were consulted, the Travels 
of Mr. Coxe ; the History of Russia by Toole ; La 
Biographic Universelle ; the works of Le General 



XVI PREFACE. 

Compfe de Segur, La Combe, Fontenelle, Levesgue, &c.; 
from which such passages only were selected as 
tended to confirm the statements made by other 
authorities. It will be obvious that, out of such a 
mass of materials, and in so small a volume, the 
great leading points only of the life and transactions 
of such a personage as Peter the Great could be 
comprehended, and of these, few, it is hoped, will be 
found to have been omitted. 



A 

MEMOIR OF THE LIFE 

OF 

PETER THE GREAT. 



CHAPTER I. 



The Birth of the Tzar Peter I.— The Intrigues of his Family- 
Revolt of the StreUtzes or Russian Janizaries — The Regency 
of Sophia — The Tzar ascends the Throne. 

We shall certainly not err in pronauncing- the 
Tzar Peter 1. of Russia to have been one of the 
most extraordinary men that ever appeared in any 
age or country ; but whether he merited the title of 
Great, which his own countrymen have bestowed 
on him, and the rest of Europe has sanctioned, it 
would seem to be necessary ta know, in the first 
place, something of the state af the country to which 
he was by universal admission a benefactor, when 
he first began to govern it, and the state in which he 
left it ; and, in the second place, what were the means 
employed, and the resources at his command, by 
which he was enabled to extend its limits, to secure 
its peace, and to improve the condition and raise the 
moral qualities of his subjects. 

In the review which is now proposed to be taken 
of the life of this extraordinary man, the latter point 
will be fully explained by the acts he performed and 
B2 



18 MEMOIR OF 

the regulations he established. The means he era- 
ployed to attain his eads were sometimes severe and 
unsparing enough, but, in general, only where sever- 
ity appeared to be necessary. If, however, heroic 
exploits, chivalrous adventures, and hazardous en- 
terprises, undertaken with the view of gratifying 
personal vanity or ambition, or of exciting mere ad- 
miration, be thought essential to the composition of 
a great character, Peter T. will have no chance of 
competing, in these respects, with " the Macedonian 
madman or the Swede." In him we neither find the 
boundless but barren ambition of the one, nor the 
desperate and fatal obstinacy of the other. '' It has 
been settled in men's minds," says Voltaire, " that 
Charles XII. was worthy of having the first post in 
the army under Peter the Great — the one has left 
nothing behind him but ruins — the other is, in every 
respect, the founder of an empire." In fact, the am- 
bition of Peter extended not beyond the improve- 
ment and prosperity of his country, for which he 
laboured incessantly through a life of restless activ- 
ity. Russia was to him all in all ; her welfare and 
her glory engaged his daily thoughts ; and those ex- 
cesses and little eccentricities which appear childish 
and frivolous, as well as those more serious and op- 
posite acts of severity, which all must condemn, had 
each of them a motive pointing to some end, and 
that generally a benevolent one. In the execution 
of his great designs for the improvement of his 
country, no difficulties nor dangers ever stood in his 
way ; his indefatigable activit}^ — the perseverance 
and intrepidity which enabled him to overcome all 
obstacles, and brave the most imminent perils — and 
all for the love of country — are the proud qualifica- 
tions that entitle him to the name of Great. 

With regard to the state of Russia, before and at 
the tirr;e of Peter, it will only be necessary to turn 
to the pages of every writer, from Hakluyt down to 
that period, to be satisfied of the extreme ignorance 



PETER THE GREAT. 19 

and barbarism of Muscovy. A glimmering of light 
may be said to have broken in during the reign of 
Alexis Michaelovitz (the father of Peter the Great), 
who died in 1677. He was one of the best princes 
that had sat on the throne of Muscovy. The estab- 
lishment of some of the principal manufactures was 
begun during his reign ; he added the fine provinces 
of Plescow and Smolensko to his dominions; he 
reformed the laws, and reduced them to something 
like a code ; he curbed the ambition of the patriarch, 
who arrogantly claimed to have the highest seat in 
council; and he opposed the usurpations of the 
church. He endeavoured to introduce a regular sys- 
tem of military tactics and discipline into the army 
through the means of the foreign generals Gordon, 
Leslie, and Dalziel. He was fully sensible of the 
benefits to be derived from the superior knowledge 
of foreign officers and artificers. Among the latter 
were some Dutch ship-builders, v^ho met with great 
encouragement ; for he cherished the ambition of 
making Russia a maritime power, and of forming 
fleets on the Black Sea and the Caspian. Thus then 
Alexis may be said to have laid the foundation on 
which Peter erected his own and his country's glory. 
Most of his schemes however failed, from the oppo- 
sition they met with from the barbarous natives, 
who had an inveterate dislike to foreigners and for- 
eign institutions. By means of some Germans and 
Italians, he made an attempt to establish silk and 
cotton manufactories, which also failed ; but he was 
more successful in sending several Polish, Swedish, 
and Tartar prisoners of war to cultivate lands on the 
banks of the Volga. This prince was twice mar- 
ried ; first to a daughter of the Boyar Milovslanski, 
and secondly to a beautiful young lady of the family 
of Nariskin, by v/hom he had Peter, the subject of 
this mempir, and a daughter. The circumstances 
which led to this marriage, and the manner in which 
candidates for becoming brides were at that time 



20 MEMOIR OF 

exhibited for selection, will show the low state 
in which the female part of society was then held by 
the Muscovites. 

The Boyar Matveof, minister for foreign affairs, 
was honoured with the particular confidence of 
Alexis. The latter going one evening to his house 
without attendants, as was frequently his custom, 
found the table covered, and said to Matveof in a 
famihar wa}'', " Your supper looks so inviting that it 
tempts me to partake of it, but it must be on condi- 
tion that nothing be altered on my account." He 
was scarcely seated when the wife of Matveof made 
her appearance, followed by her only son and a young 
lady. The Tzar insisted on their sitting down, 
though contrary to the usual custom, and the young 
lady was placed opposite the royal guest. He ob- 
served her with great attention, and then said, " I 
thought your son was your only child." — "Your ma- 
jesty," said the minister, " is right ; this young lady 
is the daughter of Kyrilla Nariskin, a relation and 
friend, who lives on his own estate ; my wife has 
undertaken her education, and, with the blessing of 
God, we hope to settle her honourably in the world. 

The family having retired, the Tzar observed to 
the minister that he ought to think of a suitable 
match for the young lady. The minister replied, 
that although endowed with good and amiable 
qualities, she was far from being rich, and that his 
own circumstances would not allow him to give her 
any considerable portion. Some days after this, the 
Tzar returned to the subject of the young lady, and 
told Matveof he had found a gentleman who might 
probably be agreeable to her ; one not destitute of 
merit, and who, besides, needed no fortune with his 
wife ; " one," he added, " who is already in love with 
your ward, and wishes to marry and make her happy. " 
Matveof, of course, was anxious to know who this 
suitor was ; and after some further discourse on the 
subject, the Tzar said. " Well, Matveof, you may 



PETER THE GREAT. 21 

tell the young lady it is I who am in love with her, 
and am determined to make her my wife." 

The minister, thunderstruck at so unexpected a 
declaration, fell at the feet of the Tzar, and entreated 
his majesty, for the love of God, not to think of it ; 
said that he had many enemies at court, who already 
beheld with envious eyes the particular marks of 
kindness with which his majesty deigned to honour 
him ; that their jealousy would be evinced if, to the 
mortification of all the noble families, his majesty 
should condescend to marry so humble a girl, who 
was under his care. The Tzar told him he had 
nothing to fear ; that his determination was taken, 
and would not be altered. " Since then it is so," 
said Matveof, " I have one favour to beg, as well for 
the sake of Nataha as for myself; which is, that you 
will not carry your wishes into execution without 
conforming to the usual custom of the country, and 
thus saving appearances ; assemble at your court 
the daughters of ^ the most distinguished families, 
among whom Natalia will be present, and let your 
majesty's choice be made in public." The Tzar 
approved his minister's advice, and promised to 
follow it. 

A few weeks after this, Alexis declared, before 
his assembled ministers, and to the heads of the 
clergy, his intention of making a second marriage, 
and ordered them to call together the unmarried 
daughters of the principal nobility, in order that he 
might make his choice. About sixty young ladies 
of high birth and great beauty were assembled, 
adorned, as may well be supposed, in all the splen- 
dour of dress and decoration, but Natalia Nariskin 
was the lady selected, and raised at once to the 
throne. This event took place at Moscow in Sep- 
tember, 1670.* 

* Staehlin's Original Anecdotes. Communicated by the 
Countess Roumanzoif, granddaughter to Matveof. , 



22 MEMOIR OF 

The Tzar Alexis, at his death, in 1C77, left two 
sons, Theodore and John, and four daughters, Sophia, 
Catharine, Mary, and Sediassa, by his first wife ; and 
one son and one daughter, Peter and Najtalia Alex- 
owna, by the second, above mentioned. Theodore, 
his eldest son, succeeded to the throne ; but being 
of a weak constitution and subject to disease, his 
life was considered likely to be of short duration. 
It was the general custom, at that time, to send the 
female issue to pass their lives in a convent ; but the 
Princess Sophia, a lady of a masculine spirit and 
great penetration, foreseeing what might happen, 
and that her brother John, being afflicted with epi- 
leptic fits and other infirmities, was wholly unfit to 
assume the reins of government, in the event of the 
demise of Theodore, conceived a plan to escape 
from the convent. In order to secure a better 
opportunity of carrying her scheme into effect, she 
represented to the ministers the unhappy condition 
of her brother Theodore, and the cruelty of being 
shut up at a distance from one whom she so tenderly 
loved, when suffering on a bed of sickness. Under 
this pretence of sisterly affection and zeal she was 
permitted to leave the convent ; and by her unre- 
mitting attention to her brother, her insinuating 
manners, and affable behaviour to the persons about 
the court, she became a universal favourite ; in 
short, being, as Gordon says, "of a superior but 
dangerous genius," she soon found herself in a fair 
way to the assumption, in her own person, of the 
supreme authority. As the most certain means of 
forwarding her views, she selected Prince Galitzin 
for the head of her party, — a man of great ability, 
and as artful and intriguing as his protectress. Sup- 
ported by her influence, he found means to carry on 
the affairs of government, during the reign of Theo- 
dore, which closed by his death, in 1682, in the 
twenty-second year of his age. Leaving no issue 
behind him, and deeming his own brother John, on 



PETER THE GREAT. 23 

account of his many infirmities, wholly unfit for the 
responsibilities of empire, he had been advised to 
name for his successor on the throne his half-brother 
Peter, who, though only ten years of age, had already 
given indication of his masculine character. 

Sophia, enraged at her own brother being thus set 
aside, formed a bold design, at the head of which she 
engaged in her service Couvanski, the general of the 
Strelitzes. This corps, if a turbulent and undis- 
ciplined gang of armed men deserve to be so called, 
bore a close resemblance to the janizaries of the 
Turks, or the Pr2etorian guards of Rome ; and, like 
them, could create or depose a sovereign according 
to their good-will and pleasure. With a view to 
exasperate the people, and the Strelitzes in parti- 
cular, a rumour was industriously spread abroad, by 
the satellites of Galitzin and Couvanski, that the Tzar 
Theodore had been poisoned. The Strelitzes, being 
called together, were addressed by Couvanski, whose 
speech excited these rabble troops to the highest 
pitch of fury. They forthwith murdered the two 
physicians who had attended the deceased Tzar; 
and having accomplished this, the next step was to 
mark out several of the chief officers of the crown 
for destruction ; some of whom were actually thrown 
over the balustrade of the imperial palace, and re- 
ceived on the pikes of the soldiers. The Princes 
Dolgorouki and Matveof, Nariskin, the brother of 
the young Tzarina, Prince Soltikoff, and many other 
persons of distinction, that had made themselves 
obnoxious to the Strelitzes, or to Sophia, were put 
to death by them ; several even of their own colonels 
and other officers, who were not in favour with the 
rabble, fell by their hands. It is stated by General 
Alexander Gordon, and other writers, that this affair 
originated in the colonels having refused the pay due 
to these troops, and that, on this account, they in- 
flicted the hattogues on nine of these officers, a 



24 MEMOIR or 

punishment which is precisely the hamhooing of the 
Chinese ; and the sufferers, in both of them, are 
obliged to thank their executioners. 

It was suggested as the only means of arresting 
this bloody tumult, that the unfortunate Prince 
John, so grievously incapacitated for a throne — 
(since he was nearly blind, could hardly articulate, 
and had been from infancy subject to epileptic fits) — 
should, nevertheless, be proclaimed Tzar conjointly 
with his brother Peter. As soon as the horrible 
massacre had terminated, the two young princes 
were proclaimed joint sovereigns, and Sophia as 
regent ; and this ambitious lady seated herself be- 
tween the two mock sovereigns, — an idiot and a 
child. Voltaire says she approved of these outrages, 
conferred rewards on the officers of the Strelitzes, 
by bestowing on the murderers the estates of the 
murdered and proscribed ; that she allowed them to 
erect a monument, on which an inscription recorded 
the names of those they had massacred, who were 
represented thereon as traitors to their country; 
and that she caused a ukase to be published, in 
which these murderous wretches were thanked for 
their zeal and fidelity. 

General Alexander Gordon, a decided partisan of 
Peter, is the principal accuser of Sophia in this 
affair, in which there are some grounds for infer- 
ring she had no concern, at least in its commence- 
ment, and that the revolt of the Strelitzes was 
chiefly occasioned, as he himself states, by large 
arrears of pay due, as well as by their hatred of 
many of their superior officers.* When the terror 
and dismay had subsided, a council was assembled, 
at which most of the nobles were present, when it 
was determined to punish the authors of this daring 
rebellion ; the result of which was, that the most 

\ * Gordon's Hist, of Peter the GreaU 



PETER THE GREAT. 25 

active among the officers and their abetters, and 
near two thousand of the soldiers, who had been 
decimated, were put to death. 

When these horrors first burst forth, the two 
Princes, John and Peter, fled with their mother 
and sister, and the family of the Nariskins, to the 
Troitski or Trinity Convent, about fifteen leagues 
from Moscow, where some German officers and 
soldiers were sent for their protection. It is stated 
by several authors that two of the Strelitzes dashed 
after the fugitives into the convent, and that one of 
them, with uplifted sword, was about to smite young 
Peter, who with his mother had taken refuge by the 
altar ; but his companion exclaimed, " Comrade, not 
before the altar !" This merciful man would appear 
to have been actuated less by feelings of humanity 
than of early prejudice, which had taught him to 
respect the sanctity of the place. 

Sophia all this time kept quiet, and managed mat« 
ters so well as to escape detection, if not suspicion. 
She had now, indeed, nearly reached the height of 
her ambition, by being placed in the enjoyment of 
all the honour and the power of sovereignty ; her 
bust was stamped on the public coin ; her hand was 
put to all despatches; she had the first seat in coun- 
cil ; and her sway might be said to be without con- 
trol. She procured a wife for her brother John, 
from the house of Soltikof, one of the family of him 
who was murdered. The marriage took place at 
Moscow in 1684. Scarcely had this ceremony been 
concluded, when another conspiracy was formed by 
Couvanski, who, as in like cases not unfrequently 
happens, found himself neglected by Sophia, from 
the moment she had attained her present elevation, 
to which he had in so essential a manner con- 
tributed. It was even said that he aimed at nothing 
less than her hand, as the first step to the imperial 
dignity ; and that, in order the more surely to ac- 
complish these ends, his design was to massacre the 



26 MEMOIR OF 

two Tzars, the princesses, with the exception of 
Sophia, and all those of the nobility who were 
attached to the court. This horrible plot being 
discovered, all the royal family again fled to the 
Troitski monastery, which was at the same time a 
fortress and a place of sanctity. From this place 
Sophia pretended to negotiate with Couvanski, and 
managed matters so well as to decoy him within the 
lines ; when he was seized and instantly beheaded, 
with the whole of his officers who accompanied 
him. Some say the plot was laid for seizing him by 
Galitzin, and that he was waylaid by 200 horsemen 
in the road to the Troitski monastery. This is not 
improbable, as the princess had taken Prince Basil 
Galitzin as her first counsellor in all affairs of state. 
The regiments of the Strelitzes, being apprized of 
the fate of their leader, again flew to arms ; but on 
the boyars assembling their vassals, and the other 
troops of the empire being put in march for the con- 
vent, about four thousand of these turbulent men 
laid down their arms, and received a pardon from 
the triumvirate. Gordon, who was present, states 
that the young Tzar Peter with great difficulty was 
prevailed on to assent to the executions that took 
place, until the patriarch had succeeded in persuad- 
ing him of the necessity ; and by his account, this 
rebellion was not accompanied by those barbarities 
which various writers have ascribed to it.''^ 

All this happened in 1685, when Peter was but 
thirteen years of age. As to his education, in such 
troublesome times, and associated with such persons, 

* General Patrick Gordon, here mentioned, must not be con- 
founded with General Alexander Gordon, who has published a 
Life of Peter the Great. The former kept a very voluminous 
diary, which has never yet been pubhshed. It is mentioned by 
Coxe as being shut up in the archives of Moscow ; but it was 
in England not long ago, and probably will be again. It com- 
mences with January, 1684, and continues to 1698. He was a 
freat friend and adviser of the Tzar Alexis, and also of young 
'etsr, who sat by his death-bed and closed his eyes. 



PETER THE GREAT. 127 

it is not likely to have been of the best description. 
His father on his death-bed, when Peter was 
scarcely five years of age, appointed as his governor 
a general officer called Menesius, a native of Scot- 
land , probably Menzies, that name being generally 
pronounced Meensie. He is represented as a per- 
son well qualified for that situation, being thoroughly 
acquainted with all the affairs of Europe, and speak- 
ing most of the European languages : but when the 
princess Sophia conspired against her infant brother, 
finding she was unable to prevail on Menesius to 
abandon the interests of Peter, she compelled him 
to give up the trust which her father had reposed in 
him. 

It is rather remarkable that so little is known 
of the history of this gentleman. In the reign of 
Alexis, in the year 1672, Menesius was sent by that 
Tzar as ambassador to Rome, to negotiate for the 
re-union of the Greek and Romish churches, but on 
conditions that were deemed inadmissible. The 
pope indeed refused to acknowledge the title of 
Tzar, as having too near an affinity to that of Cesar ; 
his holiness being ignorant, it would seem, that it is 
a borrowed title from that held by the petty princes 
of the East, descended from the house of Gengis- 
Khan. 

It does not appear that any governor was appointed 
to succeed Menesius, nor is any account given of 
the plan of Peter's education ; but it is more than 
probable that the general belief, of its being entirely 
and purposely neglected, is true, and that he was 
mainly indebted to the strength of his own natural 
genius for those transcendent abilities which he dis- 
played in after-life. His sister Sophia is accused of 
having placed about him a set of debauched young 
men, who led him into every kind of excess, by 
which she hoped to destroy his health and impair 
his intellect, but it is difficult to give credit to such 
baseness. In point of fact, it could not be so, as 



28 MEMOIR OF 

I Peter was placed under the immediate guardianship 

P| of his mother; and Sophia contented herself by 

undertaking the education of John, for which she 
was well qualified, being an accomplished and ele- 
gant scholar. Scheltema observes that the masters 
and teachers of the young prince remain unknown, 
but that a countryman of his, of the name of Francis 
Timmerman, was his first instructer in arithmetic, 
mathematics, and fortification. It is also said that 
several other Dutchmen, among whom was Andreas 
Winiiis, and the Dane, Ysbrands Ides, were in the 
service of the two Tzars, and held in great esteem 
at court, both of whom were very capable of giving 
instruction to young Peter.* 

After Moscow and the state had once more re- 
gained their usual tranquillity, Sophia continued to 
possess and to exercise the chief authority, Peter 
being yet too young, or too diffident, to take any 
active share, and John utterly incapable of acting. 
She thought it necessary, however, to share her 
power with Prince Basil Galitzin, a man of superior 
education and first-rate abilities, of an active, enter- 
prising spirit, and indefatigable application. His 
first step was to distribute the mutinous Strelitzes 
among the regiments in the distant provinces of the 
empire. His attention was next drawn towards the 
Crimea, the khan of which had insolently demanded 
of Russia an annual tribute of sixty thousand rubles, 
in imitation of that which the Turk had imposed on 
Poland. Galitzin and Sophia were determined to 
wipe off the insult of such a proposal. For this 
purpose they ordered preparations to be made for a 
vigorous war against the Tartars of the Crimea, to 
which they were further urged by the Poles, who 
had surrendered to Russia the duchy of Smolensko, 
the Ukraine, and some other territories (which she 
had, in fact, conquered from them), on the condition 

* Rusland en de Nederlanden beschouwd, &c., door Jacobua 
Scheltema. 



PETER THE GREAT. 29 

of her opposing the incursions of these people into 
Poland. 

GalUzin reluctantly undertook the command of 
this expedition ; and when all was ready, he marched, 
in 1687, with a considerable army, which was further 
augmented by the junction of a body of Cossacks, 
towards the Crimea. His troops were for the most 
part undisciplined, badly armed, and worse clothed, 
and but little inured to the hardships of a campaign. 
Having failed to reach Perecop, on account of the 
great plains being burnt up, and no water to be had, 
he returned to the river Samara, which falls into the 
Volga in about the 53d degree of latitude, where he 
employed his men in building a town of wooden 
houses, and erecting and storing magazines for the 
next campaign. Galitzin laid the blame of his failure 
on his ally, the Cossack chief, whom, with his son, 
the council banished into Siberia, where they per- 
ished in great misery. 

In 1689 it was determined to send another and 
more considerable army against the Crimea, and 
Galitzin was again appointed to the command. The 
hetman, or chief of the Cossacks, who had succeeded 
the unfortunate man, was Mazeppa, the very man 
whom Lord Byron has immortalized in verse, and 
Astley caricatured on the stage. Galitzin again 
failed of making any impression on the Tartars, or 
of compelling them to forego their demand of tribute. 
The result of these unsuccessful campaigns tended, 
among other things, to the ruin of the favourite 
minister. 

During his absence, the party opposed to him and 
to Sophia had brought about the marriage of the 
Tzar Peter, then about seventeen, to a young lady 
named Ottokesa Federowna Lapouchin, daughter of 
the boyar Feodor Abraham avitz. This step, taken 
Vithout consulting the Princess Sophia, was highly 
resented by her, but approved by all the first families 
C2 



30 MEMOIR Ol* 

in Moscow. Galitzin, on his return, found all his 
plans destroyed by this marriage, and all his hopes 
utterly blasted, on its being announced that tlie new 
Tzarina was pregnant. Voltaire states, on the au- 
thority of Neuville, the Polish envoy, who resided 
at Moscow, and was eyewitness to what passed, 
that Sophia and Galitzin engaged the ncAv chief of 
the Strelitzes to sacrifice the young Tzar to their 
ambition ; that at least six hundred of these soldiers 
were ordered to seize on the person of the prince ; 
and he adds, " the secret memoirs with which I have 
been intrusted by the court of Russia affirm that a 
scheme had been laid to murder Peter the First." 
The Tzar was once more obliged to save himself in 
the Convent of the Trinity, where he assembled the 
boyars of his party, and a large body of soldiers, and 
all that he knew to be attached to his person. The 
accomplices were all seized, and punished with great 
severity, by the knout or the haiiogues, and then be- 
headed. Tekilavetof, the chief of the Strelitzes, was 
put to the torture, confessed the whole, and was then 
beheaded. Prince Galitzin escaped with life by the 
intercession of a namesake and relation, who was a 
favourite of Peter, but his immense estate was for- 
feited, and he was banished to the neighbourhood of 
Archangel. His sentence, according to Neuville, 
was expressed in the following terms, which agrees 
with what is stated by Nestesuranoi :* — *' Thou art 
commanded by the most merciful Tzar to retire to 
Karga, a town under the pole, and there to pass the 
remainder of thy days. His majesty, out of his ex- 
cessive benevolence, allows thee for subsistence 
three copecks per day. His justice ordains that all 
thy property be confiscated to the treasury." On 
this Voltaire observes, " There is no town under the 
pole, and the person who dictated this sentence must 

♦ Mem. du R^gne de Pierre le Grand. 



PETER THK GREAT. 31 

have been a very bad geographer ; but," he adds, ** it 
is said Neuville was imposed upon by a false ac- 
count."* Galitzin survived his fall twenty-four 
years; he was recalled from banishment in 1711, 
and died on his own estate two years after his 
liberation. The Princess Sophia was confined to a 
convent in Moscow, where she remained till her 
death, which happened in the year 1704, fifteen 
years afterward. Peter was now the real and only 
sovereign, for his brother John had no other share 
of the government than that of lending his name to 
the public acts. His short life was spent in retire- 
ment, and he died in 1696. 



CHAPTER H. 



The Tzar creates a Navy, and new-models his Army — Le Fort 
— Menzikoff— Gordon— First Attack on Azoph fails — The sec- 
ond succeeds — Conspiracy discovered and defeated. 

Hitherto the young Tzar Peter had taken no 
prominent part in any of these turbulent proceed- 
ings. It would appear that he advisedly kept him- 
self aloof, in the midst of the commotions that dis- 
tracted the capital and its neighbourhood. It is prob- 
able enough, that possessing only a divided author- 
ity, and considering his youth, it might have been 
deemed prudent by his friends and advisers to pre- 
vent any interference, on his part, with one party 
or the other. It is not likely, however, that a young 
man of his active and restless disposition should 

* This is hypercriticism : but Neuville, in fact, is generally 
very little deserving of credit. He was one of those diplomatic 
characters who endeavour to pick up all the gossip they can, to 
fill & despatdi ibr their employees, at thieir To&pecuve courts. 



82 MEMOIR OF 



1 



have spent his time in idleness, between the Krem- 
lin and the Trinity Convent, or that he was unobser- 
vant of what was passing around him. Neither does 
there appear to be any ground for the accusation, 
which has been preferred against the party of Sophia, 
that either she or they were base enough to encour- 
age an incUnation, which he is said to have early 
discovered, for indulging in brandy and other strong 
liquors, or that they had contrived to put upon him 
companions well suited to train him up in every 
species of intemperance and debauchery.* Vol- 
taire, who copies Nestesuranoi, says, " His educa- 
tion was far from being worthy of his genius ; it had 
been spoiled chiefly by the Princess Sophia, whose 
interest it was to leave him in ignorance, and to 
mdulge him in those excesses which in persons 
of his rank, age, and circumstances it had been but 
too much the custom to overlook. From his feast- 
ing and conversing with foreigners, who had been 
invited to Moscow by Prince Gaiitzin, no one could 
have suspected that he was to be one day the re- 
former of his country."! There is, however, every 
reason to believe that the statement of his time 
being spent in idleness and debauchery is much ex- 
aggerated, but that a considerable portion of it must 
have been dedicated to the acquirement of the me- 
chanical arts and handicraft works ; and this is the 
more probable, as, on his arrival at Zaandam,J in 
Holland, it was observed that he was- not unac- 
quainted with the use of the adze, the plane, and 
the lathe. 

Be this as it may, the moment he became invested 
with sole and supreme authority, — for his brother 
John never interfered, — his genius shone forth with a 
lustre that dazzled all eyes, and the development of 

* Me moires du Regne de Pierre le Grand. 

t History of the Russian Empire under Peter the Great, 

i Geuerally, but improperly, written Saardam. 



PETER THE GREAT. 33 

the vigorous powers of his mind was a subject of 
universal wonder and admiration. He was now in 
his eighteenth year, tall, stout, well-made, and hand- 
some ; the features of his countenance regular, but 
indicating, when displeased or thoughtful, ^ degree 
of severity that was far from agreeable ; but when 
his passions were not excited he was lively, cheer- 
ful, and sociable. Full of energy and activity, he 
found nothing too arduous for his conception ; and 
as a proof that his youth had not been wasted in 
thoughtlessness, he commenced at once the vast pro- 
ject, which he must have previously revolved in his 
mind, of changing the whole system of the govern- 
ment, and of reforming the manners of his people. 
The first object to which he directed his attention, 
as being the most important, was the reformation of 
the army, and of the establishments for conducting 
military affairs. He next instituted an inquiry into 
the state of the civil government, and the principles 
on which it was administered. To assist him in his 
various plans, he encouraged the introduction of 
Germans into the empire, some of whom had already 
established themselves in Moscow, where they ex- 
ercised their various trades and manufactures ; and 
the Dutch, who were in considerable numbers, were 
held in especial favour, particularly for their skill in 
ship-building and navigation. 

It is remarked by most of Peter's biographers, 
that from his infancy he had such a dread of water 
as amounted absolutely to hydrophobia; that he could 
not pass a brook without being thrown into a cold 
sweat and convulsions. The cause of this dread of 
water is ascribed to his being one day, when about 
four or five years old, lying asleep on his mother's 
lap in a carriage, and suddenly awakened by the ap- 
proach to a waterfall or cataract, the rushing noise 
of which had such an effect on his nerves as to 
bring on a fever. It is not uncommon to invent, or 
exaggerate, juvenile accidents in order to acc-ount 



34 MEMOIR OF 



. forf' 



for personal defects or eccentricities, which are, for 
the most part, hereditary or constitutional. If, how- 
ever, he had this aversion, he determined to con- 
quer it ; and, by practising in a small boat on the 
river which passes through Moscow, he not only _. 
succeeded, but became so passionately fond of the ji| 
water, and took such delight in managing this little * 
boat, that it may be said, and in fact he himself con- 
sidered it to have been; the germ of the Russian 
navy. It had been built, in the reign of Peter's 
father, by a Dutchman of the name of Brandt, whom 
that sovereign had invited into Russia. Peter, hav- 
ing accidentally seen this small bark, and noticed it 
to be different from the flat pontoons he had been 
accustomed to look at, inquired of Timmerman who 
taught him fortification, "Why it was made so unlike 
other vessels 1" the reply was, that it was con- 
structed to sail against the wind. There was some- 
thing new in this, and therefore sufficient to excite 
his curiosity ; Brandt was immediately summoned, 
and having, at Peter's desire, masted, rigged, and re- 
paired her, showed him how to sail her on the Yausa, 
to the surprise and delight of the young Tzar, who 
from that time undertook, and very soon succeeded 
in, the management of the vessel himself 

Brandt was now engaged to build for him a sort 
of small yacht, and when finished, a Dutch seaman 
v/as procured to assist him in navigating her. By 
degrees he learned to manage this little vessel as 
skilfully as his master ; and became so delighted with 
sailing, and no doubt so well satisfied of its import- 
ance, that he engaged the Hollanders to build him 
no less than five vessels at Plescow, or, as the charts 
have it, Pscow on the great lake Peipus.* 

As soon as these vessels were ready and manned, 
Peter took with him his friend General Patrick Gor- 
don, who embarked with him, and kept a log of their 

* Scheltema Rusland en de Nederlanden. 



PETER THE GREAT. 35 

proceedings. But the limits of a lake, though sixty 
leagues in circumference, were too confined for the 
rising ambition of the Tzar, who now resolved to see 
what a ship could do on the wide ocean ; and for this 
purpose he set out for Archangel, where he pur- 
chased a trading vessel from a Dutch merchant there, 
to which he gave the name of Peter. Having en- 
gaged a crew from the trading vessels at that port, 
he, accompanied by a Dutch ship of war and some 
Dutch and English merchantmen, proceeded as far 
as Ponoi on the coast of Lapland, about 150 miles 
from Archangel ; and thus for the first time, says the 
Dutch author, " the Frozen Ocean had the honour 
of bearing a monarch on its bosom." His taste for 
navigation had now grown into a kind of passion ; 
and he carried it so far as often to expose himself 
to imminent danger. His confidence in his know- 
ledge as a navigator and pilot rendered him intrepid 
in the highest degree. When overtaken by a storm, 
and the sea broke over his vessel, he was so far from 
feeling any thing like fear, that he used to encourage 
his frightened crew with words like these, " Never 
fear, the Tzar Peter cannot be drowned : did you 
ever hear of a Russian Tzar having perished on the 
water '?" Like Caesar, he trusted to his fortunes. — 
" I always am the Tzar." And might say, with that 
great commander, — 

" Dang-er knows fall well, 
That Peter is more dangerous than he : 
We were two lions littered in one day. 
And I the elder and more terrible." 

Peter, some time after this, visited Archangel 
again, and remained from three to four months, in 
the course of which he contracted an intimacy with 
a Dutch skipper of the name of Musch, a native of 
Zaandam, and frequently went to sea in his vessel. 
One day he told Musch that, as he had regularly ad- 
vanced in his new army from a drummer to his 



36 MEMOIR OF 

present rank, which was yet only that of a subaltern, 
he was likewise desirous of going through all the 
steps that were considered necessary to make a per- 
fect seaman. Musch thought the Tzar was in jest, 
but his majesty soon convinced him to the contrary, 
by saying that he would go to sea with him the 
next day, and dedicate that day to his passing through 
all the gradations of a seaman's servitude, and actu- 
ally performing the duties of each. He first served 
as a zwabber^ or common drudge, who swept the 
cabin and swabbed the decks ; this done, he was ap- 
pointed knecht^ or servant, whose duty was to light 
and keep up the fire in a little stove, to prime the 
skipper's pipe, brush his jacket, &c. ; he then be- 
came kajuitwachter, or cabin boy, whose duty was 
to wait at table, serve out brandy or gin, and to make 
grog. He was now prepared to commence seaman- 
ship, and the next step of advancement was to the 
situation of yong mairoos^ or young sailor, and by 
orders of his captain, to go aloft, hand or loose the 
sails, &c. Here Musch began to be greatly alarmed, 
on seeing Peter run up the shrouds to the masthead, 
lest he should fall down and break his neck. All 
this may appear trifling, but Peter had an object in 
it. He had resolved that, both in the sea and land 
service, the officers should commence with the very 
lowest rank, and that his own example should pre- 
vent all murmuring. The skipper Musch died shortly 
after this, and Peter sent a gratuity to his widow at 
Zaandam of five hundred guilders. Another ami- 
able trait in his character while at Archangel de- 
serves to be recorded. Overtaken one day, when 
out at sea, in a storm, Peter, more than usually anx- 
ious, was instructing the helmsman how to steer, and 
having, at the same time, taken hold of the tiller, 
" Stand out of my way," called out the impatient 
seaman ; " I must know better than you how to steer 
the vessel." Having brought her through a danger- 
ous passage among the rocks to a safe anchorage, the 



PETER THE GREAT. 87 

poor fellow, recollecting what had passed, fell at the 
feet of the Tzar, and prayed forgiveness for his rude- 
ness. Peter took him up, and, as usual when pleased, 
kissed his forehead — " There is nothing to forgive," 
said he ; ** I owe you my thanks, not alone for our 
rescue from danger, but also for the proper rebuke 
you gave me." He then made him a present of his 
drenched clothes, and settled on him a small pen- 
sion.* 

This passion for sailing continued through life, but 
he indulged it as well through policy as inclination ; 
having, at a very early period of his reign^ seen the 
expediency, and indeed the necessity, of establish- 
ing a fleet on the Volga, to keep the Turks and Tar- 
tars in awe ; and another on Lake Ladoga and the 
Gulf of Finland, to protect his territories against 
his powerful neighbours the Swedes. Having one 
day, at a much later period of his life, invited all the 
foreign ministers to accompany him in his yacht on 
a water-party to Cronstadt, to see his fleet, then 
ready for sea, a sudden thunder-storm arose ; the 
sea got up, and the waves, dashing furiously against 
the little vessel, threatened her with momentary de- 
struction. The ministers were dreadfully alarmed, 
while Peter and his crew appeared to be wholly un- 
concerned. They entreated him to put back to Pe- 
tersburgh, or to land them, if possible, at Peterhofl*; 
but, attentive to the steering of the vessel, he calmly 
said, " Don't be alarmed, gentlemen," and continued 
to direct the helmsman, and to work the ship. At 
length, one of the ministers approached him, with a 
grave and fearful countenance :— " I beseech your 
majesty," said he, " for the love of God to return to 
Petersburgh, or to Peterhofl", which is still nearer, 
and not to forget that my court did not send me to 
Russia to be drowned : if I should perish here, as in 
all likelihood I shall, your majesty will have to an^ 

* Scheltema, on the fiuthority of Van Halem, 
D 



38 MEMOIK OF 

swerto the king my master." On hearing this, the 
Tzar could not help smiling, notwithstanding the 
vessel was in some danger. " Sir," said he, " if you 
are drowned, we shall all share the same fate, and 
nobody will be left to answer for your excellency."* 
. But the army, as we have said, was the first great 
object of his attention. In his childhood he was 
particularly delighted with beating the drum, and 
" playing at soldiers ;" and the taste for a military 
life, as he advanced in years, is supposed to have 
accompanied him to his obscure retirement in the 
Trinity convent. In his first attempt to form a 
body of disciplined troops, he was ably assisted by 
a foreigner, for whom he had conceived the strong- 
est attachment, and who never left him till he was 
taken away by death. To this excellent man Russia 
may truly be said to stand indebted for the able ad- 
vice and assistance he gave to Peter, in laying the 
solid foundation of that true grandeur and prosperity 
to which, in later times, she has advanced. This 
remarkable man, Mr. Francis Le Fort, the son of a 
respectable merchant of Geneva, had imbibed from 
his childhood a strong inclination for the army ; but, 
at the particular request of his father, consented to 
be placed, at an early period of his life, in the count- 
ing-house of Mr. Franconis, an eminent merchant in 
Amsterdam.! According to Voltaire, who gives as 
his authority " General Le Fort's manuscripts," he 
quitted his father's house at the age of fourteen, and 
was four years a cadet in the citadel of Marseilles ; 
from whence he went to Holland, and, serving as a 
volunteer, was wounded at the siege of Grave, upon 
the Meuse. The historian adds, that, in expecta- 
tion of further preferment, he embarked in 1675, in 
company with a German colonel of the name of 
Verstin, who had obtained a commission from Peter's 

* Staehlin. Authority Mr. Bruyns, master-attendant-general, 
t John Mottley's History of the Life of Peter I. 



PETER THE GREAT. 39 

father, the Tzar Alexis, to raise a few troops in the 
Netherlands, and to transport them to Archangel ; 
that on their arrival, after a perilous voyage, the 
Tzar Alexis wsls no more ; the government had 
undergone a change, and Muscovy v^^as in an unset- 
tled state ; that the Governor of Archangel suffered 
them all, for a long time, to languish with want, and 
even threatened to send them to the extremity of 
Siberia ; that then, each shifting for himself, Le Fort, 
in great necessity, made his way to Moscow, where 
he offered his services to M. de Hoorn, the Danish 
resident, who made him his secretary. This was in 
1690, when Peter was eighteen years of age.* 

The resident was one of those foreigners whom 
the Tzar honoured by dining at his table — and there 
he first took notice of Le Fort. He inquired after 
his character from M. de Hoorn, and finding that he 
was a young man of great ability, of modest de- 
meanour, and had made himself acquainted with the 
Russian language, he asked the resident if he would 
be willing to part with him. The resident replied 
that the exchange was too flattering and advan- 
tageous to Le Fort, and that he had too much regard 
for his welfare, and too high a respect for the com- 
mands of his majesty, not to consent to it. 

The cheerful, yet modest and unassuming, man- 
ners of Le Fort, the fund of information he possessed 
respecting the customs and manners of the Euro- 
pean courts, at which he had resided,— but, above 
all, the general knowledge he possessed of military 
affairs, so delighted the Tzar that he soon became 
his constant companion and favourite, and was al- 
ways sent for to accompany him wherever he went. 
The first mark of his favour was a commission as 
captain of infantry. It has been said that Le Fort 
had no great proficiency in the military service, — 

* Voltaire's History of the Russian Empire under Peter the 
Great. 



40 MEMOIR OF 

neither was he a man of literature, nor much con- 
versant in the abstract sciences, — but that he had 
seen a great deal, and was capable of forming a right 
judgment of what he did see.* Such a man, in- 
debted, as the Tzar himself was, to his own genius 
for the knowledge he had acquired, was perhaps 
better suited to be the companion and adviser of 
Peter, than one more deeply skilled in the arts and 
sciences, but less agreeable in his manners. 

Peter had great reason, from past experience, to 
place no confidence in those of his generals who 
were chosen from among the corps of Strelitzes ; 
and had determined to replace them by regular and 
well-disciplined officers — such as Le Fort had told 
him were to be found in the armies of Europe, and 
especially at the courts of Austria and Denmark, 
With this view, he one day sounded Le Fort as to 
his opinion with regard to his present guards, and 
desired he would give it freely. In reply, he said 
he thought the same of them as of the rest of his 
soldiers — that they were a fine body of well-made 
men, who required only to be well officered, dis- 
ciplined, and properly accoutred, to make excellent 
soldiers ; but that, in the first place, their long coats 
must be laid aside, being unbecoming, inconvenient, 
and troublesome ; that their beards must be shaved ; 
their hair properly dressed ; and concluded his ob- 
servations by proposing that he would make a trial 
of the changes he should recommend, on a small 
scale, Peter resolved on this, as he did on most 
occasions, at once. He immediately took Le Fort 
to his country residence of Preobrazinski, where 
a company of fifty men were selected from among 
the sons of the neighbouring boyars and the younger 
part of the domestics, whom he clothed and ac- 
coutred en militaire ; and having chosen a few of the 
youths, sons of the boyars, to be the officers, the work 

* Voltaire— in which General Gordon pretty nearly agrees. 



PETER THE GREAT. 41 

of training the little corps according to the Euro- 
pean tactics of the day immediately began. It is 
unlikely that the Tzar should not have taken an 
active part in the training ; and the story is not very 
probable that Le Fort took the whole on himself, 
without consulting the Tzar. When all was ready, 
Peter however was highly pleased with their ap- 
pearance and manoeuvres, and desired that he might 
be instantly enrolled in the company as a private 
soldier. He directed also that the young boyars, 
following his example, should all become privates, 
and serve in succession in that capacity, rising grad- 
ually to the rank of corporal, sergeant, ensign, before 
they obtained a commission as lieutenant. Such is 
stated to have been the origin of that celebrated regi- 
ment, known afterward by the name of the Preo- 
brazenski Guards. 

The Tzar was thus enabled, from this small begin- 
ning, to raise, in a very short space of time, a corps 
of five thousand disciplined troops in whom he could 
confide ; trained, mostly, by General Patrick Gordon, 
and composed, for the most part, of foreigners. Le 
Fort himself undertook to raise another corps of 
twelve thousand men, from foreigners, natives, and 
chiefly from the Strelitzes, which he accomplished ; 
and for which the Tzar created him their general. 
Voltaire says, on the authority of Le Fort's manu- 
scripts, that one-third of this army, which was called 
only a regiment, consisted of French refugees ; and 
this, he observes, confounds the impertinence of 
those who pretend that France lost very few inhab- 
itants by the revocation of the edict of Nantes.* 
Peter would not sufifer this newly-raised army to re- 
main inactive in time of peace, and thus relax in its 
discipline. He caused them to be frequently exer- 
cised in mock sieges and sham engagements ; and, 
it is said, such was their ardour and desire of dis- 

* Voltaire, Histoire, &c 
D2 



43 MEMOIR OF 

tinction, that they sometimes fought a real battle, 
when a sham-fight only was intended, in which seve- 
ral of the men were killed and wounded ; and that 
in on« of these Le Fort received a considerable 
wound.* 

In the midst of these military sports, if they may 
be so called, the Tzar was not unmindful of his navy. 
His Dutch and Venetian ship-builders were employed 
in building gun-boats and sloops of war, at the mouth 
of a small deep river near Voronitz, which discharges 
its waters into the Don, or Tanais. These vessels 
were to be held in readiness to drop down before 
Asoph, which he was resolved to attack, and, if pos- 
sible, to secure as a most important post, in the 
event of a war, which he foresaw would speedily 
happen, with the Tartars of the Crimea. He visited 
frequently the progress of their equipment, and on 
one occasion raised Le Fort to the rank of admiral, 
in addition to that of general. The advantages to 
be derived from encouraging foreigners of all de- 
scriptions to flock into the country were felt and ac- 
knowledged by the sensible portion of the commu- 
nity ; but the strangers were regarded with some- 
thing more than jealousy by the priests and many 
of the boyars, who considered all innovation as sub- 
versive of their ancient constitution, which of course 
was, in their estimation, the best of all possible con- 
stitutions. 

An army and a navy, however, were not to be 
formed and kept up without money; and Peter's 
finances were in a state of as great disorder as his 
troops had been. He was therefore honestly ap- 
prized by Le Fort that his revenues were not in a 
condition to bear the expenses of what he was de- 
signing, with regard to the building and equipment 
of a navy, and the feeding, clothing, and payment of 
his army, to say nothing of the pay that was due to 

* Nestesuranoi, Mottley, &c.. 



PETER THE GREAT. 43 

the numerous foreign artisans and workmen that 
were employed about the court, and on the great 
works that were projected or actually in progress ; 
but, at the same time, assured him that his revenues 
were improvable. He pointed out to him, in the 
first place, the impolicy of exacting such heavy duties 
on all kinds of merchandise that were imported into 
Russia, and the equally heavy imposts that were ex- 
acted on the export of its own produce ; that, in con- 
sequence of these charges, the merchants were 
compelled to conspire together how to avoid them, 
by introducing and sending away articles of com- 
merce in a clandestine manner, either by craft or 
by bribing the custom-house officers ; and that, by 
such means, the revenue was defrauded to a great 
extent. Convinced of the truth of this repre- 
sentation, he immediately ordered the duties to be 
reduced from ten to five per cent., and ordained se- 
vere penalties on such as should be detected in com- 
mitting frauds ; the consequence of which was, that, 
in the very first year of the new regulations, the 
revenue of the customs was augmented by nearly 
two millions of rubles. ^ 

Nor did the benefits bestowed on Russia by Le 
Fort rest here. The greatest and most important 
of all was that conferred personally on the Tzar him- 
self. The influence which he had gained over him 
was employed in softening the asperity of his temper, 
and curbing the violence of his passions, to which 
he was frequently subject. Many a blow was turned 
aside, and many a life saved, by his timely interfe 
rence. When a boyar or noble (for they more than 
others were liable to the knout, or to lose their heads) 
was ordered for punishment, as often happened on 
very trifling occasions, Le Fort would interpose, and 
desire him to suspend his judgment till he became 
cool ; and not succeeding, as was sometimes the 
case, he would entreat him to deal the blow upon 
bimself, rather than on the innocent subject of his 



44 MEMOIR OF ,» 

wrath ; and this generally produced a suspension of 
his anger, and saved the intended victim. By such 
generosity Le Fort became a universal favourite 
among all classes of Russians, who seemed to forget 
he was a foreigner, and were willing to consider him 
as one of their own countrymen. 

Another piece of service rendered to the Tzar 
Peter by M. Le Fort was, the casual introduction of 
a very remarkable personage, who, from one of the 
lowest stations in life, became the leading character 
in all the affairs of state ; — a general, a governor, 
and ultimately raised to the princely dignity. This 
was no other than Prince Alexander Menzikoif. It 
is said by M. de la Motraye, that his parents were in 
so miserable a condition, in one of the villages on 
the banks of the Volga, that they could not afford to 
give to their son the common education of reading 
and writing ; that he left them at the age of thirteen 
or fourteen, without saying a word, to seek service 
in Moscow, where he was taken into that of a pas- 
try-cook. The daily business of this young lad was 
to traverse the streets of Moscow, with a little 
basket of cakes and patties to sell : having a clear 
and sweet voice, he was in the habit of offering his 
patties in a song or tune of his own composing ; and 
being well made, neatly clad, and of a prepossessing 
face, crowds generally gathered round him, and his 
basket was soon emptied. It happened one day that 
this boy caught the attention of General Le Fort,* 
who called him into the house, and asked him if he 
would sell his pies and his basket. The boy replied 
that it was his business to sell his pies, — bat as to 
the basket, he must ask his master's leave to dis- 
pose of that. The general was so struck with his 
manner and appearance that he asked if he should 
like to enter his service. In short, he took him into 

* Memoires, &c., par Le B. Iwan Nestesuranoi. M. Voltaire 
says it was the Tzar who called him. 



PETER THE GREAT. 45 

his house, and observing that he was a fine, hand- 
some, and engaging young man, thought the Tzar 
would not be displeased to have him in his service, 
in which he was not mistaken. He saw him, heard 
his history, and took him as his page. He soon be- 
came a great favourite, and accompanied the Tzar 
in all his travels ; he employed him on all his secret 
commissions and confidential business. Never was 
an instance of so sudden a rise, from the lowest 
state of poverty, to riches, honours, power, and mag- 
nificence, as that of Menzikoff. The subsequent his- 
tory of this remarkable person is intimately inter- 
woven with that of the Tzar Peter. It was said, 
indeed, that the Tzar owed his life to Menzikoflf, 
when a cake-boy, and that this was the cause of his 
sudden elevation. Peter, indeed, said on one occa- 
sion, when pleading for his favourite under a crimi- 
nal prosecution, that he owed his life to him. The 
circumstance is not likely to have happened, but the 
narrator was employed in both the court and the 
army, and it was probably the gossip of the day. 
Peter, according to this story, is said to have dined 
one day with a boyar of the discontented faction, 
who had determined to get rid of him by poison ; 
that Menzikoff, being in the kitchen, observed some 
white powder put into a particular dish ; that the 
Tzar was apprized of it, pressed the boyar to eat 
of it, who declined, saying it did not become the 
servant to eat with his master ; that the plate was 
set down to a dog, which, having devoured it, died 
in convulsions ; that the boyar was taken into cus- 
tody, but was found dead in his bed, — and thus the 
matter dropped.* 

It would appear that Peter was far from being at 
ease in his domestic circle. The marriages of sove- 
reigns, seldom made by the choice of either party, 
but from political expediency, can hardly be expected 

* Memoirs of Capt. Bruce. 



4^ MEMOIR OF 

to turn out happy. Peter had a wife forced upon 
him at the age of seventeen ; before he attained 
that of twenty, he found cause to put her away, and 
confine her strictly to a convent. This proceeding 
has been accounted for in various ways. Some pre- 
tend she was disloyal to his bed — others that she 
had reproached Menzikoff for taking her husband to 
visit low women, who had formerly been his cus- 
tomers for cakes, and that it was he who advised 
the Tzar to divorce her. The real cause, however, 
is generally supposed to have been the encourage- 
ment she gave to the pow^erful party that was hos- 
tile to every innovation which he either had intro- 
duced, or was intending to introduce, into the affairs 
of the nation ; for the fact was well known that the 
greatest opposition he met with, in his grand design 
of regenerating his country, and out of savages 
forming men, came from his wife and her connex- 
ions. She was taught by her confessor to regard 
all innovations as so many sacrileges, and every 
foreigner as a corrupter of her husband. Such con- 
duct encouraged the factious boyars and the priests 
to use all endeavours to thwart his designs for the 
improvement and prosperity of the country. His 
son, Alexis, being an infant, was placed under 
the guardianship of his repudiated mother, which 
turned out to be the principal cause of all his mis- 
fortunes. 

The way in which General Alexander Gordon got 
his first commission in the Russian service, just at 
this time, was entirely owing to this illiberal hatred 
of foreigners, and is highly creditable to the discern- 
ment and firmness of the Tzar. Being introduced 
to Peter, on his arrival in Moscow, by his namesake 
Patrick Gordon, and also to many of the first fami- 
lies, he received an invitation to a wedding. Several 
young Russians were present ; and when the bottle 
had freely circulated, they began to speak very disre- 
spectfully of foreigners in general, and of the Scots 



PETER THE GREAT. 47 

in particular; and this kind of conversation went 
on so long, and was so pointed, that Gordon became 
irritated, and laid the one next him sprawling on the 
floor by a blow with his fist. Five others imme- 
diately set upon him ; but the use he made of his 
large brawny arms drove them oif, and he remained 
master of the field. An event of this kind was sure 
to be carried to the Tzar, especially as the 3'-ouths 
were of the first families. Gordon was ordered the 
next day to appear before him, and expected nothing 
less than the knout or to be sent to Siberia ; but the 
modest manner in which he stated the case to the 
Tzar, and the sorrow he expressed for having unin- 
tentionally given him displeasure, gained at once 
the good opinion of Peter, who, always acting on 
the impulse of the moment, said, " Well, sir, your 
accusers have done you justice by admitting that 
you beat six of them, — I will also do you justice." 
On saying this he withdrew, and in a few minutes 
returned with a major's commission, which he pre- 
sented to Gordon with his own hand. Peter knew 
that he had received a captain's commission from 
Louis XIV., after serving in the wars in Catalonia. 
Gordon's biographer adds, " This anecdote of our 
author's history he once told, and we believe never 
but once."* 

The appointment of Le Fort to the rank of admi- 
ral was no empty title ; he was despatched to hasten 
the ships building at Voronitz, and prepare them 
with all expedition to drop down the Don prepara- 
tory to an attack on Azoph, which the Tzar was 
determined to get possession of, as the key to the 
sovereignty of the Black Sea. General Patrick 
Gordon received directions to march at the head of 
five thousand men along the line of the Don; Le 
Fort was to follow with the twelve thousand men 

* Life of Major-general Gordon, prefixed to his History of 
Peter the Great. 



48 MEMOIR OF 

which he had raised; a corps of StreUtzes was 
placed under the command of Generals Scherematof 
and Shein ; and to all these was joined a body of 
Cossacks. The Tzar was determined to proceed to 
the attack in person, but in the capacity only of a 
volunteer. Azoph was a strong place and well gar-* 
risoned, and could only be successfully bombarded 
from the water ; but it unfortunately happened that, 
with every exertion, some Venetian galleys and 
two large Dutch frigates, were not able to get 
down the river in time. The Russians, impatient, 
would not wait their arrival ; they laid siege to the 
place and miscarried, chiefly, as was reported, 
through the treachery of an inferior oiRcer in the 
Tzar's army. 

The name of this man was Jacob, a native of . 
Dantzic, and an artillery officer under General Shein. 
The general for some fault or other had bambooed 
Jacob, who, not bearing this disgraceful punishment 
so composedly as a Russian would have done, deter- 
mined on revenge. During the night he spiked the 
cannon of the invaders, deserted to the enemy, and 
the same man, who had directed the approaches to 
the fortress, was now the best defender of it. The 
Russians made an attempt to storm, but, after losing 
a great number of men, were repulsed, and obliged 
to raise the siege. Thus ended the first campaign 
of the Tzar Peter. 

Though completely beaten, the Tzar showed him- 
self a man not to be disheartened by one stroke of 
adverse fortune. He resolved, on the spot, to make 
a second attempt ; and accordingly, in the early part 
of the spring of 1796, he put his forces in motion^ 
and with increased means proceeded to the attack 
of the town. His fleet was now completely 
equipped and properly commanded. The siege was 
conducted with systematic regularity, and the Tzar 
was constantly in the trenches or on board some of 
the ships of the squadron; but he soon began to 



PETER THE GREAT. 49 

^ow impatient at the protracted siege; called a 
council of war, and requested the opinions of the 
several officers. All of these advised to delay, — ' 
Until it came to the turn of the old General Patrick 
Gordon, v^rho recommended a most extraordinary 
plan, such as one might expect to find practised in 
the days of Homer. He said ; that, in his opinion, 
the safest and most expeditious v^^ay to become 
masters of the place would be to carry on before 
them a whole rampart of earth along the front of 
the town, which, as they advanced, would hourly 
increase. " By having ten or twelve thousand men 
night and day, we shall," said he, " roll as much 
earth before us, as will not only be sufficient to fill 
up the fosse, but will, over and above, more than 
exceed the height of the town Avails ; by which 
means, in a few weeks, we shall oblige the enemy 
to surrender, or we shall bury them alive." The 
Tzar preferred this opinion, and ordered them to do 
as he had proposed. So to work they went, and 
with such cheerfulness, that, within the space of 
Ave weeks, the fosse was actually full, and the earth 
above the height of the ramparts, rolling in over 
them, which obliged the governor to put out the 
white flag. The younger Gordon, who was present, 
adds, that twelve thousand men were constantly at 
work, who threw the earth from hand to hand, like 
so many steps of a stair.* 

After this extraordinary operation of taking a for- 
tified town, Peter granted to the governor a capitu- 
lation, and had the satisfaction to witness the sur- 
render of the garrison on the 28th of July ; and that 
which gave him more pleasure than any thing be- 
sides was to find that the traitor Jacob was still 
there, and that the governor made no difficulty in 
delivering him up to the besiegers among the rest 
of the prisoners. 

* Gordon's History of Peter the Great 
E 



50 MEMOIR OF 

The Russians had no sooner got possession of 
the town than Peter issued his orders for improving 
and strengthening the fortifications, enlarging the 
harbour, and for increasing his fleet, both in number 
and size ; some of the ships ordered to be built 
being intended to carry from thirty to sixty pieces 
of cannon. On his return to Moscow, a contribu- 
tion was directed to be levied on the boyars, or land 
proprietors, in aid of the expense of building and 
fitting out this fleet ; and conceiving that the estates 
of the clergy ought to bear their proportion in the 
service of the common cause, orders were sent forth 
that the patriarch, the bishops^ and the superior 
clergy should contribute to the fitting out of an in- 
tended expedition, in which the honour and the 
glory of their country were concerned, and which 
was for the general good of Christendom.* This 
powerful armament was intended to give to Russia 
the command of the Palus Moeotis, as the best and 
most practicable means of driving the Tartars out 
of the Crimea ; and also of opening a free commu- 
nication with Circassia and Georgia by the Couban, 
and through these countries to establish a commer- 
cial intercourse with Persia. Such were the grand 
designs which the Tzar revolved in his mind on the 
fall of Asoph, and which, in later times, have been 
fully accomplished. 

In order to impress the people of the capital, the 
boyars, and the clergy with the great importance 
of the victory gained by the army and navy of his 
own creating, and to give encouragement to his 
troops to (engage heartily in daring enterprises of a 
similar kind, he caused the officers of both services 
to enter the ancient capital under triumphal arches, 
amid the firing of cannon and the ringing of bells ; 
and feasts and entertainments, fireworks, illumina- 
tions, and every demonstration of joy continued foi 

* Voltaire's History of the Russian Empire. 



PETER THE GREAT. 51 

several days. Admiral Le Fort, the generals, and 
all the officers of the army and navy, marched in 
procession, and took precedence of the Tzar Peter, 
who disdained all rank, being desirous of convincing 
his subjects that the only road to military preferment 
was by meritorious conduct. On this occasion the 
triumphal entry was followed by the captives taken 
at Azoph ; and Jacob the traitor was placed in a 
cart, with an executioner on each side, and a gallows 
above his head, on which he was afterward sus- 
pended, having first been broken on the wheel. He 
had a label on his breast, purporting that "this 
wretch had five times changed his religion, and was 
a traitor to God and man; that at first he was a 
Roman Catholic, then a Protestant, afterward a 
Greek, and, lastly, a Mohammedan." 

The laurels which had thus crowned his newly- 
formed army, the honours that were conferred on 
foreigners serving as officers in that army, and the 
contributions about to be levied for the support of 
his land and sea forces, together with the many 
changes which the Tzar was making in their ancient 
usages, gave great offence to the adverse party, and 
particularly to the officers of the Strelitzes, who 
foresaw that his measures tended to a speedy dis- 
solution of that corps. Instigated by this reflection, 
a certain number of these misguided men entered 
into a conspiracy to put the Tzar to death. The 
plan was to set fire to a building in the Kremlin, at 
midnight; and as it was quite certain that Peter 
would be instantly on the spot, one of them was to 
stab him privately, when in the midst of the crowd. 
They met together at ane of their houses on the 
night fixed on to carry this diabolical plot into exe- 
cution ; but two of the conspirators, either from fear 
of detection and failure, or from feehngs of com- 
punction, went to the Tzar and laid open the whole 
plot. He was at that time at the house of Admiral- 
Le Fort. With a few followers he proceeded to the 



52 MEMOIR OF 

house where the conspirators were assembled, and 
took them all into custody. This happened on the 
2d of February, 1697, and on the 5th of March they 
were executed in the grand square before the Krem- 
lin, and their heads fixed on spikes of iron, as, not 
very many years ago, those of traitors were fixed 
on Temple Bar ; with this difference, that the spikes 
for the heads of the Strelitzes were driven into a 
lofty column, erected for the purpose on the spot ; 
their arms and legs bound round the column, and 
their trunks thrown on the ground for the dogs to 
devour. The principal conspirators are said to have 
been three boyars, a colonel of the Don Cossacks, 
and four captains of the Strelitzes.* 



CHAPTER III. 



The Tzar Peler travels into Holland — His Residence at 
Zaandam. 

The conquest of Asoph being accomplished chiefly 
by the odd plan of attack proposed by General 
Patrick Gordon and the assistance rendered by the 
ships built by foreigners, and manned chiefly with 
them, the Tzar was now more than ever convinced 
of the pre-eminence of the natives of Western Eu- 
rope over his own barbarous subjects. This con- 
sideration created in him a strong desire to give to 
the latter every facility and encouragement for en- 
larging their minds, and improving themselves in 
every species of useful knowledge, and more particu- 
larly in the art of war, and the construction of large 
ships on sound principles of naval architecture. In- 
fluenced by these motives, he despatched, in 1697, 

* Nfistesuranoi, Lacombe. John Mottley. 



PETER THE GREAT. 53 

sixty young' Russians, selected by Le Fort out of 
his regiment, to Venice and Leghorn, in order that 
they might make themselves acquainted with every 
thing pertaining to the art of ship-building and navi- 
gation, and particularly with the construction of 
row-galleys ; and forty more were sent to HoHand 
for the same purpose. A large number were des- 
patched to Germany, to inform themselves in the 
military discipline and tactics of that nation. Not 
satisfied with this, he resolved to go himself into 
Holland, Germany, and Italy, to procure knowledge 
by his own observation and experience. He was 
particularly anxious to make himself perfect in 
every branch of nautical science, and the several 
arts connected with it. " It was a thing," says Vol- 
taire, " unparalleled in history, either ancient or 
modern, for a sovereign of five-and-twenty years of 
age to withdraw from his kingdom, for the sole pur- 
pose of learning the art of government." 

The time seemed favourable for such an under- 
taking. His success before Azoph, the gratification 
that his army had received by their triumphal 
entry into Moscow, the amount and improved dis- 
cipline of that army, the death of his brother John, 
and the confinement of his sister Sophia, all con- 
spired to assure him of a continuance of the internal 
tranquillity of his extensive dominions ; and though 
the clergy were clamorous against his sending Rus- 
sians out of the country, and going himself into 
foreign, and therefore barbarous, parts, which they 
said was an abomination before the Lord, and had 
been so ever since the days of Moses, and therefore 
contrary to their holy religion ; yet as Peter, since 
his successful campaign, and the death of his brother, 
found himself treated with the most profound re- 
spect by the generality of liis subjects, he did not 
much regard the anathemas of the church, or the 
fevi discontented boyars, but adhered steadfastly to 
his resolution ; and in the same year 1697, set ont 
E 2 



54 MEMOIR OF 

on his travels. He took the precaution, however, 
of ordering General Gordon, in whom he placed the 
highest confidence, to remain at the capital with 
four thousand of his guards until his return, which, 
as matters turned out, proved to be the salvation of 
the government as well as that of the Tzar and the 
whole of his family.* 

As yet Peter was not represented, in his charac- 
ter of sovereign, at any of the courts of Europe, of 
the propriety, and indeed the necessity, of which 
he would, no doubt, have been apprized by his friend 
and mentor, General Le Fort. Having therefore de- 
termined, as already stated, to visit in person the 
several countries mentioned, he appointed an em- 
bassy extraordinary on a grand scale to proceed, in 
the first instance, to the States-General of Holland, 
and resolved to accompany it himself, incognito^ in 
the character of a private gentleman, attached to 
the embassy. The three persons selected as am- 
bassadors were General Le Fort, Alexis Golownin, 
governor of Siberia, and Voristzin, secretary of state 
for foreign affairs. The retinue consisted of four 
principal secretaries, twelve noblemen and gentle- 
men^ six pages, and a company of fifty of the Preo- 
brazinski guards with their officers, the whole con- 
sisting of two hundred persons. The retinue of the 
Tzar was a valet, a livery servant, and a dwarf, the 
latter being invariably a part of the royal establish- 
ment of Muscovy. It appears also, from documents 
kept in the dock-yard of Zaandam, that his favourite 
Menzikoflf was one of the twelve attendants. 

The ambassadors commenced their journey in 
April, 1697, proceeding through Esthonia and Livo- 
nia. They visited Riga, and the Tzar, being desirous 
of seeing the fortifications of that town, was per- 
emptorily refused by the governor, Count D'Alberg. 
This want of courtesy was not forgotten by Peter 

* Gordon's Hist, of Peter the Great. 



PETER THE GREAT. 55 

in his future war with the Swedes.* At Konigsberg 
the embassy was received with royal munificence 
by the King of Prussia. While in Germany there 
was nothing but feasting and carousing. Mr. Coxe, 
on anonymous authority, cites the following pas- 
sage : " Le Fort is a man of good understanding ; 
very personable, engaging, and entertaining ; a true 
Swiss for probity and bravery, but chiefly for drink- 
ing. Open tables are kept everywhere, with trum- 
pets and music, attended with feasting and excessive 
drinking, as if his Tzarish majesty had been another 
Bacchus. I have not yet seen such hard drinkers ; 
it is not possible to express it, and they boast of it 
as a mighty qualification." The description maybe 
just, but the writer may also be suspected of having 
mistaken Menzikoff for Le Fort. At one of these 
bacchanalian debauches, the Tzar took such violent 
offence at something said by Le Fort, that he in- 
stantly drew his sword, and desired him to defend 
himself. " Far be it from me," said Le Fort, " rather 
let me perish by the hand of my master." Peter 
had raised his sword, but one of the retinue, of the 
name of Von Prinsen, had presence of mind to catch 
hold of his arm, and saved, probably, the life of Le 
Fort. He expressed, says Voltaire, the same con- 
cern for this short transport of passion as Alexander 
showed for the murder of Clytus : for he imme- 
diately asked that gentleman's pardon; and with 
composure observed, that his great desire was to 
reform his subjects ; but he was ashamed to say he 
had not yet been able to reform himself.f 

Having reached Emmeric on the Rhine, the Tzar, 
impatient to arrive at his destination, left the em- 
bassy, and, having hired a small boat, proceeded to 
Amsterdam, through which, says Nestesuranoi, he 
flew hke lightning, and never once stopped till he 

* Voltaire. Nestesuranoi. Journal de Pierre le Grand, 
t Voltaire— referring to MS. Memoirs of Le Fort. 






56 MEMOIR OF 



arrived at Zaandam, fifteen days before the embassy 
reached Amsterdam. The first person seen by the 
Russian party in the boat was a man fishing in a small 
skiff, of the name of Kist, who had worked as a 
smith in Russia, and was immediately recognised by 
one of the six persons who were with the Tzar. 
This person called over to him to come to them, 
which he did. The man's astonishment may be 
conceived on seeing the Tzar of Russia sailing in a 
little boat, dressed hke a Dutch skipper in a red 
jacket and white linen trousers. Peter told Kist 
he wanted lodgings, and should like to take them 
with him. Kist was but in poor circumstances, and 
would have excused himself, but Peter persisted ; 
and as a poor widow woman had a small house be- 
hind his, she consented to move to a little adjoining 
hut, in order to accommodate the royal stranger. 
Peter's lodgings consisted of two small rooms, with 
a loft over them, and an adjoining shed.* Kist re- 
ceived strict injunctions on no account whatever to 
let it be known who his lodger was, as he did not 
wish to be discovered. To the questions which the 
crowd, collected to see the strangers, put to them, 
the Tzar rephed (for he could speak the Dutch flu- 
ently), that they were all carpenters and labourers 
from a foreign country, who had come to Zaandam 
in search of work. But no one believed this ; in- 
deed, the rich clothes of his companions, who had 
kept on their proper Russian dresses, sufficiently 
contradicted any such idea. 

The fii'st business, after landing, which Peter set 
about, and which showed a favourable trait in his 
character, was to inquire after and visit the families 
and the widows of several Dutch seamen and ship- 
carpenters with whom he had associated at Arch- 
angel and Plescow, representing himself to each as 
a brother ship-builder of their relatives. Among 

* Scheltema. 



PETER THE GREAT. 57 

others, he paid a visit to the widow of the deceased 
skipper Musch, to whom he had sent from Archangel 
a gratuity of five hundred guilders. This poor 
woman said ^' she was afraid she never could be suffi- 
ciently thankful to the Tzar for his great kindness, 
but entreated him, if he ever might be permitted to 
come into the presence of his Tzarish majesty, to 
tell him how very welcome the gift was in her wid- 
owed state, and that she was most humbly and cor- 
dially thankful for his kind consideration." He as- 
sured the poor woman she might rely on the Tzar 
being made acquainted with all she had said.* 

Having made all his inquiries after the families of 
his Dutch friends in Russia, Peter next proceeded 
to visit the shops of Zaandam, to purchase carpen- 
ter's tools for himself and companions, whom he 
had directed to clothe themselves in the common 
dress of the dock-yards. Among these, as it after- 
ward turned out, were his youthful companions and 
favourites MenzikofF and Galitzin, who were di- 
rected to handle the tools and work at ship-building 
as well as himself. 

The day following their arrival being Sunday, all 
the workmen of this then busy and populous town, 
and whole crowds from Amsterdam, hearing of the 
passage of the strangers to Zaandam, and guessing 
from the report of those who had seen them that 
they were the forerunners of the expected embassy, 
assembled before the small lodgings of Peter and 
those of his companions, very much to the annoy- 
ance of the former, who had an unconquerable an- ' 
tipathy against a crowd, and more especially of 
strangers assembled to look at him. Besides, the 
secret of his real character was, as might be ex- 
pected, very soon divulged. A Dutch resident at 
Archangel had written home to his friends, announ- 
cing the preparations making for the embassy, and 

* Scheltema. 



58 MEMOIR OF 

the intention of the Tzar to accompany it in dis- 
guise, enclosing, at the same time, a description of 
his person, and a portrait print. Among the crowd 
which curiosity had attracted was a barber from 
Amsterdam, to whom the letter and print had been 
shown ; and, as it would seem that, from the time 
when the unsuccessful experiment was made by 
the barber of Midas, none of these gossiping gentle- 
men have made a second attempt to hury a secret, 
the shaver of Amsterdam, on seeing Peter, called 
out " Dat is den Tzar !"— " That is the Tzar !"* 

Indeed no one could mistake him who had ever 
heard his person described. " The Tzar/'' says a 
Zaandammer, " is very tall and robust, quick and 
nimble of foot, dexterous and rapid in all his actions; 
his face is plump and round ; fierce in his look, with 
brown eyebrows, and short curling hair of a brown- 
ish colour. His gait quick, swinging his arms, and 
holding in one of them a cane." The character of 
this extraordinary personage was developed much 
more in Holland than at home. He was here free 
from all restraint, and subject only to partial annoy- 
ance ; the natural bent of his mind had, therefore, 
free scope. Little of his time was passed Vvith the 
ambassadors ; it was almost wholly employed among 
the ship-builders of Amsterdam, and of Zaandam ; 
and in sailing on the Y, the Pampus, and the Zuy- 
der-Zee ; so much interested were the Dutch in all 
that he said and did, that regular entries were made 
in the dag-register^ or diary kept at Zaandam ; and 
all those inhabitants with whom he was in daily in- 
tercourse made memoranda of what occurred, as 
far as their knowledge extended. Many of these 
little notices have been collected by Noomen, Calf, 
Van Halem, Meerman, and several others, who are 
referred to by Scheltema, in his Rusland en de Neder^ 
landen beschouwd. 

* Scheltema 



PETER THE GREAT. 50 

The cane which Peter carried in his hand was 
sometimes freely used, when any one attempted to 
thwart his movements. His first exploit in the 
dock-yard of Mynhder Calf, a wealthy merchant 
and ship-builder, with whom he was prevailed on to 
lodge, after quitting his first cabin, was to purchase 
a small yacht, and to fit her with a new bowsprit, 
made entirely with his own hands, to the astonish- 
ment of all the shipwrights ; they could not conceive 
how a person of his high rank could submit to work 
till the sweat ran down his face, or where he could 
have learned to handle the tools so dexterously. 
When this httle vessel was ready for sea, he ap- 
dointed Gerrit Musc/i, the brother of his friend who 
died at Archangel, as his captain ; and both he and 
his wife, and the widow of the brother, had access 
to him at all times during his stay, and received from 
him many tokens 6f his regard in little presents of 
diiferent kinds, all of w^hich show that, notwithstand- 
ing his rude and violent temper, he was, in the main, 
a kind-hearted man. 

He was frequently on the water, sometimes seve- 
ral hours in the day. His extraordinary rapidity of 
movement in- landing or embarking used to astonish %k 
and amuse the Dutch, who had never before wit- 
nessed such " loopen, springen, en klauteren over de 
schepen," — " running, jumping, and clambering over 
the shipping." The curiosity of the Dutch to see 
this extraordinary character brought whole swarms 
from the capital, on Sundays and holydays, so that 
all the windows and the house-tops in the street 
where he lodged were crowded T/ith people ; but he 
confined himself closely to the house at such times, 
and would not sufier himself to be seen. The bailiff" 
(sckout), two burgomasters, and three members 
of the council waited on him one day to request he 
would honour them by being present at the winding 
up, or dragging a ship over the dam : his answer, in 
a hurried manner, on seeing a great crowd, was^ 



60 MEMOIR Of 



1 



" Straks-straks" — " By-and-by ;" but observing the 
multitude to have increased, he was visibly annoyed^ 
and declined going, and with evident anxiety said, 
" Te veel volks, te veel volks" — " Too many people, 
too many people ;" at the same time, throwing him-» 
self into a great passion, he shut the door. 

The following day the crowds that beset his door 
were greater than ever, which again threw him into 
such a violent rage that he became convulsed. Peter 
had been subject to such fits from his early youth ; 
they are said to have been first occasioned by the 
fright he received, when some of the Strelitzes 
forced themselves into the Trinity convent, and one 
of them held a naked sabre over his head, when by 
his mother's side before the altar. He was then 
ten years of age ; but it is much more probable they 
were an original and constitutional disease, to which 
other members of his family were subject; and 
though they diminished in frequency and violence 
with years, they continued to afflict him occasion- 
ally till his death. The convulsive spasms generally 
came upon him when agitated or much excited, and 
he remained in them, sometimes, for whole hours. 
These paroxysms, it seems, always gave warning 
of their approach by a contortion of the neck to- 
wards the left side, and by a twitching or contrac- 
tion of the muscles of the face ; and, as these fits had 
never been observed during his childhood, it is not 
to be wondered at that some cause should be as- 
signed for their production. Bassevitz, the Holstein 
envoy, ascribes them to the effects of the poison 
supposed to have been given him by his ambitious 
sister Sophia, which is wholly unsupported by any 
other authority, and is in itself an absurdity. That 
they were constitutional may be inferred from the 
fact that all the male children of Alexis were more 
or less subject to fits, though none so violent as those 
with which Peter was affected ; they differed from 
epileptic, and were more like those to which Bona- 



PETER THE GREAT. 61 

parte was subject, when thrown into a sudden gust 
of passion, and which, in his case, were called cata- 
leptic. 

On the present occasion, the Dutch gentlemen 
who had waited on him were exceedingly alarmed, 
but his companions, who had been accustomed to 
see him in paroxysms of this kind, sought out and 
placed before him a handsome young woman, whose 
presence speedily led to his recovery.* Count Paul 
Jagouchinsky is said to have made the discovery by 
accident, when he was page to the Tzar. He al- 
ways brought to him either the Tzarina Catharine 
or, in her absence, the first young woman he met 
with, and left her alone with him ; whether, he ob- 
serves, the unexpected appearance of a young and 
beautiful woman, or the pleasing sound of her voice, 
exerted the powerful influence on his frame, it is 
difficult to say ; but it is a fact that it had the tran- 
quillizing effect of subduing his passion and abating 
the convulsions.! It is well known that the sight 
of a caracan^ or black beetle, had the effect of throw- 
ing him into convulsions ; and why then should not 
a beautiful object produce the contrary effect of re- 
lieving him from them ! 

Subject, however, as he was to these bursts of 
passion, Peter had so far command over himself as 
to act and speak with all humility and perfect obe- 
dience, when he conceived it necessary to set an 
example for others to follow. Thus, in entering 
himself as a ship- carpenter in the dock-yard, he 
strictly adhered to the regulations imder which his 
fellow-labourers worked, and was known, at his own 
request, by the name of Pieter Timmerman van 
Zaandam; sometimes as Pieter Baas, or Master 
Peter ; and generally, when in Amsterdam, as Peter 
Michaelhoff. It is stated in the diary of M. Calfy 

■* Scheltema. 

t StsehUn ; authority Count Paul Jagouchinsky. 
F 



62 MEMOIR OF 

that he was an early riser, made his own fire, and 
frequently cooked his own meals. Mr. Titsingh, a 
most respectable gentleman, who died in 1812, at 
the age of eighty, was told by a sea-officer, worthy 
of all belief, who was living in the year 1754, that 
he had seen Peter at his work, clad as a common 
workman, and that, when any one wished to speak 
to him, he would go with his adze in his hand and 
sit down on a rough log of timber for a short time, 
but seemed always anxious to resume and finish the 
work on which he had been employed. 

One day either the great Duke of Marlborough or 
the Earl of Portland (the narrator is doubtful which, 
as both are known to have been at Zaandam), came 
to the yard, and asked the master to point out to 
him, unnoticed, the Tzar among the workmen, as he 
wished much to see him at work. A number of the 
men were just then carrying a large beam of wood, 
close by the spot where Peter happened to be sitting 
at the time. Having shown the stranger the object 
of his curiosity, the master called out, " Peter Tim-^ 
merman, why don't you assist these men ?" Peter 
immediately rose up and obeyed, placed his shoulder 
under the log, and helped to carry it to its proper 
place. When at work in the East India Company's 
dock-yard at Amsterdam, he received a letter from 
the patriarch of Russia, in answer to which he took 
the opportunity of observing to him, among other 
things, that " in Amsterdam he was obedient to the 
commands of God, which were spoken to father 
Adam, in the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat thy 
bread.' " 

It was observed that Peter would lend a helping 
hand at every thing connected with ship-building, 
such as rope-making, sail-making, smiths' work, &c. 
On his return from his Archangel expedition, he 
gave proof of what he could do in forging iron. On 
visiting MuUer's manufactory at Istia, he forged 
several bars of iron, and put his own mark on each 



PETER THE GREAT. 63 

of thera ; he made the companions of his journey 
blow the bellows, stir the fire, carry coals, and do 
ail the labouring work of journeymen blacksmiths. 
The Tzar demanded payment from Muller for his 
work, at the same rate as he paid the other work- 
men. Having received eighteen altins^ " This will 
serve," said he, "tobuy me a pair of shoes, of which I 
stand in great need," at the same time showing those 
he wore, which had already been soled. He then 
went to a neighbouring shop, bought a pair of shoes, 
and took great pleasure in showing them, saying to 
his companions, " I have earned them well, by the 
sweat of my brow, mth hammer and anvil." A bar 
of iron forged and marked with his own hand is still 
in the cabinet of the Academy of Sciences at Peters- 
burgh, but this was forged at a later date at Olonetz.* 

Not satisfied with working himself in the dock- 
yard, he insisted that Menzikoff and Golownin, and 
a third person, whose name the Dutch builders were 
not able to discover, should make themselves ac- 
quainted with boat-building and mast-making; but 
the third, who was of a sickly habit, got leave very 
soon to return to Russia. Menzikoff made some 
progress, but complained bitterly of his sore hands. 
It would seem, however, that they all, except Peter, 
affected to consider their labour as amusement only. 
Latterly they hired a large house, and lived all 
together merrily and frohcksome, with a professed 
cook, a skilful physician, and a priest. 

On the public entry of the amibassadors into Am- 
sterdam, Peter deemed it right he should take a part 
in the procession, which was got up with all the 
magnificence that their high-mightinesses in those 
days were able and accustomed to display. The 
three ambassadors went first, followed by a long 
train of carriages, with richly-dressed livery servants 

* Nestesuranoi. Stsehlin ; on the authority of Peter Muller, 
spn of the above-mentioned blacksmith. 



64 MEMOIR OF 

on foot ; but Peter, in the simple habit of a gentle- 
man, was in one of the last carriages ; such, indeed, 
according to our custom, was his proper place, as 
here on all such occasions the tail is pushed forward 
while the head remains behind. But in Holland it 
is different ; and in this situation he was not recog- 
nised, and therefore escaped the stare of the vulgar, 
which he seemed on all occasions anxious to avoid. 
The ceremony being ended, Peter was too happy to 
return to his favourite residence at Zaandam. He 
was, however, interrupted in his labours a second 
time, by a private visit he thought it right to pay to 
William HI. King of England, and Stadtholder of the 
United Provinces, who was then at Utrecht, and 
afterward at his private residence at Loo. The 
speech he made to King William on this occasion 
could not have been written by himself, but by one 
of his scribes, being full of bombast and fulsome 
adulation. He thus begins : " Most renowned Em- 
peror ! It was not the desire of seeing the cele- 
brated cities of the German empire, or the most 
powerful republic of the universe, that made me 
leave my throne and my victorious armies, to come 
into a distant country ; it was solely the ardent 
desire of paying my respects to the most brave and 
generous hero of the day," &c. 

Having made a sufficient progress in ship-carpen- 
try to satisfy himself, he now determined on seeing 
every thing that was new to him in Holland, and 
among other things to visit the Greenland fishing- 
ships. With this view he proceeded to the Texel, 
where upwards of a hundred of these ships had 
arrived from the fishery. He went on board several 
of them, inquired into the manner of catching the 
whales, how the blubber was cut off, the oil boiled, 
the whalebone cut out, and, in short, every thing 
appertaining to the whale-fishery. Nothing was 
considered by him too troublesome, — nothing about 
the fishing-ships too filthy, — while acquiring some 



PETER THE GREAT. 65 

knowledge of that lucrative species of commercial 

enterprise. It was the same in all other matters: 
he visited all the manufactories, — all the windmills 
for grinding corn, pressing out oil, cutting plank, 
pumping water, making paper, — and examined the 
principles on which they were constructed. On 
seeing any new object he instantly inquired, " Wat 
is dat ?" and being told, he used to exclaim, " Dat 
wil ik zien" — " I shall see that." Ten times a day, 
while accompanying his friend Calf and others over 
different parts of the neighbourhood, v/ere the words 
repeated — " Wat is dat," and " Dat wil ik zien." His 
curiosity was unbounded, and the gratification of it 
not always free from personal danger. He was one 
day nearly entangled in the machinery of a windmill. 
On another occasion he mounted to the top of one 
of the large cranes on the admiralty wharf in Amster- 
dam,- when his foot slipped, and down he fell on the 
pavement and injured his leg ; and he was in the 
habit of carrying so much sail in his little boat as to 
occasion constant alarm lest she should be overset.* 
Peter's curiosity was by no means of that idle kind 
which leads to no profit ; with him it was the inquis- 
itive daughter of ignorance and the prolific mother 
of knowledge. Nothing came amiss to him. He 
frequented the markets, and was particularly amused 
with the mountebanks and venders of quack medi- 
cines. It might be said he was somewhat of a quack 
himself ; he learned to drawJteeth, and became skil- 
ful by a little practice in that operation. He attended 
dissections in the hospital, and learned to bleed ; and 
these useful operations he followed with great zeal 
after his return to Russia, and practised them with 
advantage frequently among his workmen and in the 
army, particularly blood-letting. Stcehlin says he had 
acquired sufficient skill to dissect according to the 
rules of art, to bleed, draw teeth, and perform other 

* Scheltema. 
F3 



66 MEMOIR OF 

operations as well as one of the faculty, — that is to 
say, the Russian faculty, among whom surgery may 
be supposed, at that time, to have been at a very low 
ebb. He tapped the wife of a Dutch merchant who 
had the dropsy, but the operation having been too 
long deferred, the poor woman died, as the regular 
practitioners said she would : and by way of con- 
soling the husband for his loss, the Tzar attended 
the funeral. j 

Peter, it would seem, was always ready to perform ' 
his good offices in the surgical way, and for that 
purpose always carried about with him a small case 
of surgical, as well as a case of mathematical, instru- 
ments. Perceiving one day a valet of his, named 
Balboiarof, sitting with a sad and pensive counte- 
nance, he inquired what was the matter with him. 
" Nothing, sire," answered Balboiarof, " except that 
my wife has got the toothache, and refuses to have 
it out." — " Does she !" said the Tzar ; " let me see 
her, and I warrant I'll cure her." He made her sit 
down that he might examine her mouth, though the 
poor woman protested and insisted that nothing was 
the matter with her. " Ay," said the disconsolate 
husband, " so she always says that she suffers no- 
thing, while the doctor is present." — "Well, well," 
said the Tzar, " she shall not suffer long ; do you 
hold her head and arms." Peter caught hold of a 
tooth with the instrument, which he supposed to be 
the bad one, and drew it out with great expertness. 
A few days after this, Peter learned, from some of 
the household, that the poor woman's tooth ailed no- 
thing, and that the whole was a trick of the husband 
to be revenged of his wife's supposed gallantries. 
Peter was not to be trifled with ; his own sagacity 
was impugned by drawing out a sound tooth — the 
poor woman was pained unnecessarily, and a trick 
was put upon him ; he called his valet and gave him 
a severe chastisement with his own hands.* 

♦ Staehlin ; authority Mr. Velton (Felton\ chief cook to the Tzar. 



PETER THE GREAT. 67 

Peter finished his labours at ship-carpentry by 
assisting to put together a yacht, which, at the sug- 
gestion of the Burgomaster Witsen, was to be pre- 
sented to him as a gift, in the name of the States- 
General. Mr. Witsen was a wealthy ship-owner, a 
great patron of science, having sent several persons 
at his own expense to make discoveries in Northern 
and Eastern Tartary ; an account of which was 
published by him. Peter was constant in his at- 
tendance at the putting together of this ship, from 
the laying down the keel to her completion for 
launching. He gave her the name of Amsterdam, 
where she was built, and when ready, appointed the 
son of his deceased friend Musch to command her. 

The Jews had been driven out of Russia since the 
time of the Tzar' Ivan Yasilovitz. They now applied 
to this kind-hearted and liberal burgomaster to repre- 
sent to the Tzar Peter their hard lot, and to pray 
they might be admitted to reside there on the same 
footing with other foreigners ; and their petition was 
accompanied with the offer of one hundred thousand 
florins as the first mark of their gratitude, should it 
prove successful. The Tzar heard patiently what 
he had to say in their favour, and then replied, " My 
good friend Witsen, you know the Jews, and my 
countrymen's opinion of them ; I also know both. 
In the light in which they are held by the latter, this 
is no time for them to think of settling in my domin- 
ions. You may therefore tell them from me, that 
I thank them for their offer, and that I should most 
truly feel compassion for them, were they to come 
and fix their abode in Russia ; for, though they have 
the reputation of knowing how to cheat the whole 
world, I apprehend my countrymen would prove 
more than a match for them."* 

By M. Witsen, Peter was introduced to all the 

* Staehlin ; authority M. Hofy, a Dutch surgeon, who followed 
Peter into Russia. Scheltema. 



68 MEMOIR OF 

learned men of Holland, and those who had in any 
way distinguished themselves in the arts and sci^- 
ences. He attended regularly Professor Ruych's 
lectures in the dissecting-room, and his extensive 
museum of anatomical preparations. At lectures 
he used to sit on the lower bench close to the table, 
and one day, as the professor was explaining the 
connexion and the functions of the different parts 
of the human body, Peter, having heard and seen 
*' how fearfully and wonderfully we are made," be- 
came so excited and anxious, that he jumped from 
his seat, and appeared as if he was about to snatch 
the scalpel from the^hands of the dissector. He 
visited all the museums of natural history and cabi^ 
nets of coins and medals in Amsterdam ; the houses 
of artists, engravers, and architects. He paid a 
visit to Leuwenhoeck, and was much delighted with 
his microscopes. He invited Bynkershok, the learned 
writer on international law, to enter his service and 
go with him to Russia. At the Hague, the Baron 
Van Coehorn, the celebrated engineer, was intro- 
duced to him. Among other things he wished- to 
see, was an execution of a condemned criminal ; and 
he requested the Dutch government would let him 
know when such an event might take place. He 
accordingly attended the trial of two criminals, and 
was particularly observant of all that took place in 
the court, at the passing of the sentence., and after- 
ward at the execution. But it would appear he 
thought the process too long, at least he profited not 
much by the careful and attentive examination, with 
which the documentary evidence was considered 
by the judges, before the sentence of death was 
passed on the criminals. For it so happened shortly 
after, that an affair occurred in his own household, 
whicii induced him to send two of the offending party 
to prison in irons, with a full determination of or- 
dering them to be put to death. The burgomasters, 
however, gave him to understand that such a things 



PETER THE GREAT. 09 

in that country, and in their city, neither must, nor 
could, nor should take place ; they endeavoured 
with great earnestness to divert him from the point, 
and prevail on him to release the prisoners ; but all 
they could obtain from him was, that they might be 
released, on condition that the one should be sent 
on a voyage to Batavia, and the other to Surinam, as 
very slender punishments for the offence. 

Whatever irregularities Peter might sometimes 
be guilty of himself, he never overlooked them in 
any of his followers. One of the priests of the em- 
bassy had been in the habit of indulging too freely 
in the use of gin. Peter one day saw him very much 
intoxicated, and immediately sentenced him, as a 
punishment, to turn the wheel in the rope-yard. He 
prayed forgiveness, showing his hands how wofuUy 
disfigured they were by this unaccustomed work ; 
but all in vain. The only answer he got was, 
" Quick, quick to your work."* 

To one little creature that he brought in his suite 
he was particularly kind ; and this was his dwarf, 
who accompanied him on all occasions of festivity, 
and stood at the table close to his elbow. One day, 
when M. Witsen and some others were going in a 
carriage, and some one observed that the dwarf had 
better go in another, as the Tzar might be incom- 
moded, he said, " By no means," and took the Lilli- 
putian on his knee. It is remarkable that even to this 
day, these little creatures, whom nature has abridged 
of their fair proportions, are to be found in most 
of the palaces of the great, in Russia, gayly dressed 
in a uniform, or livery, of the most costly materials. 
Besides these, many have a different kind of animal, 
meant to correspond with our " motleys" in the days 
of Elizabeth, but by constantly gormandizing and 
sleeping, become so beastly fat and indolent, that 
they really are what nature has designed and habit 

* Scheltema. 



70 MEMOIR OF 

made them to be — " fools." Whether for the grati- 
fication of their master's vanity, that in comparing 
himself with these beings, he may be able to ex- 
claim with the Pharisee, *' I thank thee, Lord, that 
I am not as this man ;" pr, to induce humility, by 
being put in mind how low human nature may be 
reduced ; or, through mere curiosity, in having jpos- 
session of a rare animal, the breed is, at any rate, 
still kept up. It would appear, however, that royal 
and noble personages, in more countries than Russia, 
are not indisposed to have some butt, be he dwarf, 
or jester, or fool, agahist whom they may hurl their 
cutting sarcasms and coarse jokes, and, without in- 
tending it, sometimes inflict wounds that cannot be 
retaliated. 

It may not be out of place here to give an exam- 
ple of the grotesque and barbarous kind of exhibi- 
tions from which the royal family and the court 
nobles could derive amusement. Natalia, the sister 
of the Tzar, once took the whimsical fancy to marry 
two of her dwarfs. She had several little coaches 
made for the occasion, and little ponies (Shetland, 
Capt. Bruce calls them) were provided to draw 
them ; and all the dwarfs that could be got together, 
to the number of ninety-three, were summoned to 
celebrate the nuptials. A grand procession was 
marched through all the streets of Moscow. First 
went a large open wagon, drawn by six horses, with 
kettle-drums, trumpets, horns, and hautboys ; next 
followed the marshal and his attendants, two and 
two, on horseback ; then the bridegroom and bride, 
in a coach and six, attended by their bride-man and 
maid, and they were followed by fifteen small 
coaches, each drawn by six ponies, and each con- 
taining four dwarfs. " It was somewhat surpris- 
ing," says Bruce, " to see such a number of little 
creatures in one company together ; especially as 
they were furnished with an equipage conformable 
to their statures." Two troops of dragoons, and 



PETER THE GREAT. 71 

mmiy persons of fashion, in their carriages, joined 
in the procession. A grand entertainment, after the 
ceremony was over, was given by the princess, and 
the dwarfs dined together at two long tables, the 
princess with her nieces, Anne and Elizabeth, the 
Tzar's daughters, seeing them all seated and well 
attended before they sat down at their own table. 
"At night the princess, attended by the nobility, 
conducted the married couple to bed in grand state, 
and the other dwarfs concluded the entertainment 
with a ball, which lasted till daylight."* 

While the Tzar was in Holland he received the 
agreeable intelligence of his army having obtained 
a victory over the Turks and Tartars, in the neigh- 
bourhood of the Crimea, in which vast slaughter 
was occasioned among the troops of the enemy, in 
crossing a river in their flight, when great numbers 
were drowned and others taken prisoners. An at- 
tempt was made by the Tartar galleys to seize upon 
Azoph, but the Russian vessels made an attack upon 
them, and drove them back, taking several of them, 
and sinking and destroying others. The Russian 
forces were commanded by Prince Dolgorouki and 
General Shein. 

On the news of this important victory, Peter and 
his ambassadors received the congratulations of the 
plenipotentiaries of the Emperor of Germany, of 
Sweden, Denmark, and Brandenburgh ; but the French 
ambassador, offended at the Tzar having so warmly 
espoused the interests of Augustus, who had been 
elected King of Poland against the pretensions of 
the Prince de Conti, withheld this piece of civility, 
which the occasion and common courtesy would 
seem to have required. The only revenge taken 
by the Tzar was a determination not to visit France 
in the course of his travels. In celebration of this 
event, Peter gave a grand entertainment, to which 

* Memoirs of Peter Hemry Bruce. 



72 MEMOIR OF 



m\ 



all the officers of government, and the principal 
merchants of Amsterdam, with their wives and 
daughters, were invited. The sumptuous dinner was 
accompanied and followed by a band of music, and 
in the evening were plays, dancing, masquerades, 
illuminations, and fireworks. His respectable friend 
Witsen told him he had entertained his countrymen 
like an emperor. " It was," says Scheltema, " a 
most agreeable surprise to behold at Amsterdam the 
followers of the embassy, a hundred hours (500 
miles) from their birth-place, joining in their own 
country dances." The cheerfulness and good-humour 
of the Tzar were particularly noticed by the Hol- 
landers. 

Peter, having at last fully satisfied his curiosity in 
Holland, where he had spent nine months nearly, 
went for the last time to take an affectionate leave 
of his friends and fellow-labourers of Zaandam, with 
whom he had been so closely and intimately con- 
nected for a great part of the time, and from whom 
he parted with a regret in which they fully re- 
ciprocated. He proceeded to the Hague along with 
M. Le Fort, and they had an interview with King 
William, when it was arranged that two or three 
ships of war, and one of the royal yachts should 
be sent over to Helvoetsluys, in the early part of the 
month of January, to convey the Tzar and his suite 
to England. 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Tzar Peter visits England. 

Two ships of war and a yacht, under the orders 
of Admiral Mitchell, were despatched to Helvoet- 
sluys to bring over the Tzar, who, with his suite, 
consisting of Menzikoff and some others, whose 



PETER THE GREAT. 73 

names are not mentioned, embarked at that port ou 
the 18th of January, 1698, and on the 21st reached 
London. Here no secret was attempted to be made 
of his rank, but he requested to be treated only as 
a private gentleman ; and it is remarkable enough 
that, though he paid frequent visits to the king, and 
attended his court, his name never once appears in 
the only official paper which then, as indeed now, 
was in existence, the London Gazette. Lord 
Shrewsbury, at this time, was secretary of state 
for foreign affairs ; but as the Tzar came not in 
any public character, he appears to have been placed 
under the especial charge of the Marquis Caermar- 
then, who was made lord-president of the council 
in the following year. Between this nobleman and 
Peter a very considerable intimacy took place, 
which was uninterrupted during the Tzar's abode in 
England. A large house was hired for him and his 
suite at the bottom of York Buildings, w^here, it is 
stated in a private letter, the marquis and he used to 
spend their evenings together frequently in drinking 
"hot pepper and brandy." The great failing of 
Peter, indeed, was his love of strong liquors. We 
find in one of the papers of the day, that he took a 
particular fancy to the nectar ambrosia "the new cor- 
dial so called, which the author, or compounder, of 
it presented him with, and that his majesty sent for 
more of it." 

Of the proceedings of the Tzar, during the four 
months he remained in England very little is re- 
corded in the few journals or other publications of 
that day ; the former consisting chiefly of the PosU 
master^ the Postman, and the Postboy, The Postman 
opens the subject of the Tzar's arrival to his coun- 
trymen with the following just and judicious re- 
marks : — " The Tzar of Muscovy, desiring to raise 
the glory of his nation, and avenge the Christians 
of all the injuries they have received from the 
G 



74 MEMOIR OF 

TurkSj has abrogated the wild manners of his pre- 
decessors, and having concluded from the behaviour 
of his engineers and officers, who were sent him by 
the Elector of Brandenbnrg, that the western na- 
tions of Europe understood the art of war better 
than others, he resolved to take a journey thither, 
and not wholly to rely upon the relations that his 
ambassadors might give him; and, at the same time, 
to send a great number of his nobility into those 
parts through which he did not intend to travel, that 
he might have a complete idea of the affairs of Eu- 
rope, and enrich his subjects with the arts of all 
other Christian nations ; and as navigation is the 
most useful invention that ever was yet found out, 
he seems to have chosen it as his own part in the 
general inquiry he is about. His design is certainly 
very noble, and discovers the greatness of his 
genius ; but the model he has proposed to himself 
to imitate is a convincing proof of his extraor- 
dinary judgment ; for what other prince in the 
world was a fit pattern for the great Emperor of 
Muscovy than WiUiam the Third, King of Great 
Britain ]"* 

In the Postboy it is stated, that, on the day after 
his arrival, the Tzar of Muscovy was at Kensington, 
to see his majesty at dinner, as also the court; but 
he was all the while incognito. And on the Saturday 
following he was at the playhouse, to see the opera; 
that on the Friday night the revels ended at the 
Temple, the same being concluded by a fine mas- 
querade, at which the Tzar of Muscovy was present ; 
that on the following Sunday he went in a hackney- 
coach to Kensington, and returned at night to his 
lodgings in Norfolk-street, where he was attended 
by several of the king's servants. 

His movements, during the rest of the month, 
were a journey to Woolwich and Deptford, to see 

* Postman, No. 417. 



PETER THE GREAT. 75 

tlie docks and yards ; then to the theatre, to see 
the Rival Queens, or Alexander the Great ; to St. 
James's, to be present at a fine ball ; and, it is further 
stated, that he was about to remove from Norfolk- 
street (York Buildings) to Redrift, where a ship was 
building for him ; that he was about to go to Chat- 
ham, to see a man-of-war launched, v/hich he was 
to name ; and that on the 15th of February, accom- 
panied by the Marquis of Caermarthen, he went to 
Deptford, and having spent some time on board the 
" Royal Transport," they were afterward splendidly 
treated by Admiral Mitchell. These are the princi- 
pal notices concerning the Tzar Peter contained in 
the Postboy. 

It is evident that London could not be very agree- 
able to him, on two accounts ; first, because his 
great object in coming here was to see the dock- 
yard establishments, and to profit also by observing 
the English mode of making draughts of ships, and 
laying them off in the mould-loft ; and to acquire 
some knowledge in the theory of naval architecture 
and navigation, v/hich he had heard, when in Hol- 
land, was superior to what he had seen or could 
obtain in that country, though it was assumed that 
the mechanical part of finishing and putting together 
a ship was there fully equal, if not superior, to the 
EngUsh. 

In the next place, he was equally annoyed by tlae 
crowds he was continually meeting in the streets of 
London, as he had been in Amsterdam, and this he 
could not bear with becomang patience. It is said, 
that as he was one day v/alking along the Strand 
with his friend the Marquis of Caermarthen, a por- 
ter, with a hod on his shoulder rudely rushed against 
him and drove him into the kennel. He was ex- 
tremely indignant, and ready to knock him down ; 
but the marquis, interfering, asked the man what 
he meant, and if he knew whom he had so rudely 
run against, adding, " that it was the Tzar." The 



76 MEMOIR OF 

porter, turning round, replied, with a grin, *' Tzar ! 
we are all Tzars here." But that which annoyed 
him most of all was the intrusion of the citizens 
into his lodgings, and into the room even where he 
was eating, to which they gained access through the 
king's servants. Disgusted at their impertinent 
curiosity, he would sometimes rise from table, and 
leave the room in a rage. To prevent this intrusion, 
he strictly charged his domestics not to admit any 
persons whatever, let their rank be what it might. 
A kind of forced interview, however, was obtained 
by two Quakers, the account of which, as given by 
one of them, is singular and interesting: — 

" Anno 1C97. At this time Peter the Great, Tzar 
of Muscovy, being in London, incog., and Gilbert 
Mollyson {Robert Barclay^s wife's brother) having 
heard that a kinsman of his was in the Tzar's ser- 
vice, and being desirous to increase the knowledge 
of the truth, requested me to go with him, in quest 
of his kinsman, to the Tzar's residence, a large 
house at the bottom of York Buildings, in order to 
present him with some of Robert Barclay^s Apolo- 
gies, in Latin ; hoping that, by that means, they 
might fall under the Tzar's notice, and be subser- 
vient to the end proposed. And accordingly we 
went one morning ; and when we came to the place, 
Gilbert inquired of the porter after his cousin, but 
could not hear any thing of him in the lower apart- 
ments, but was desired to stay till further inquiry 
was made in the house ; and a servant went up-stairs 
to that end, and when returned invited us up. The 
head of the staircase, on the first floor, brought us 
to the entrance of a long passage, which went 
through the middle of the house, and there stood a 
single man at a large window, at the further end, 
next the river Thames, to whom we were directed 
for intelligence ; and as we passed along, we ob- 
served two tall men walking in a large room on th^ 
right-hand, but we did not stop to look at them, only 



PETER THE GREAT. 77 

transiently as we moved; for, supposing one of 
them to be the Tzar, of whom I had heard that he 
was not willing to be looked upon, and careful not 
to offend him, we behaved with caution, and went 
directly to the person standing^ at the window, of 
whom Gilbert Mollyson inquired after his kinsman; 
and he told us that such a person had been in the 
Tzar's service, but was dead, 

" In the mean time came the Tzar and the other 
to us ; the other, I suppose, was Prince Menzikoff, 
his general. Our backs were towards them, and 
our hats on ; and when they approached, the person 
with whom we had conversed looked down upon 
the floor with profound respect and silence ; but we 
stood in our first posture, with our faces towards 
the window, as if we had not taken any notice of 
them. The person we had conversed with was an 
Englishman^ a Muscovy merchant, known to the 
Tzar in his own country, who understood his lan- 
guage, and was his interpreter. Then the Tzar 
spoke something to him which we did not under- 
stand ; upon which he asked us, ' Why do you not 
pay respect to great persons, when you are in their 
presence V I answered, ' So we do, when we are 
fully sensible of it, especially to kings and princes. 
For though we have laid aside and decline all vain 
and empty shows of respect and duty, and flattering 
titles, whereby they are generally deceived by in- 
sincere and designing men, who seem to admire 
them for their own ends, yet we yield all due and 
sincere respect and duty to such, and all in authority 
under them, by giving ready obedience to all their 
lawful commands ; but when at any time any of 
them, either through tyranny or ignorance, or ill 
counsel, happens to command any thing contrary 
to our duty to the Almighty, or his Son Christ our 
Lord, then we offer our prayers and tears to God, 
and humble addresses unto such rulers, that their 
G2 



78 MEMOIR OF 

Understandings may be opened and their minds 
changed towards us.' 

" The Tzar gave no reply to this, but talked with 
his interpreter again, who then asked, * Of what use 
can you be in any kingdom or government, seeing 
you will not bear arms and fight T* To this I re- 
plied, ' That many of us had borne arms in times 
past, and been in many battles, and fought with 
courage and magnanimity, and thought it lawful and 
a duty then, in days of ignorance; and I myself 
have worn a sword and other arms, and know how 
to use them : but when it pleased God to reveal in 
our hearts the life and power of Jesus Christ, his 
Son, our Lord, v/ho is the Prince of righteousness 
and peace, whose commandment is love, we were 
then reconciled unto God, one unto another, unto 
our enemies, and unto all mankind.' " 

Thomas Storey goes on at great length, and actu- 
ally preaches a sermon on this text, the Tzar pa- 
tiently listening to what he could not understand. 

" Upon this," he continues, '* the Tzar took seve- 
ral turns in the gallery, or passage, and then came 
and looked steadfastly upon us, though we did not 
seem to mind him, or know that it was he. Then I 
said to the interpreter, ' That we understood that 
there was a person of great dignity and distinction 
in that place, a stranger, very inspections into the 
state of affairs and things in general ; and, no doubt, 
might be also inquisitive into the state of religion ; 
and we (being a people differing in some points from 
ail others, and so much misunderstood and misrepre- 

* It is whimsical enough to see how different minds jump to 
different conclusions. When i-i was told that those amiable 
creatures of Loo-Choo had no arms and no money — "What !" 
exclaims Bonaparte, "no arms! how do they conquer other 
countries, or defend their own?" — " No money!" says a kind- 
hearted chancellor of the exchequer, " how do they carry on 
the government?" And *<0f what use," says Peter to the 
Quakers, ♦• can you be in any kingdom, einee you will not bear 
axms and fight ?" 



PETER THE GREAT. 79 

sented in our own country, that even our neighbours 
themselves did not know us), lest that great prince 
should be misinformed, and imposed upon concern- 
ing us and our religion, had brought him some books, 
dedicated to the sovereign of our native country, by 
which he might please to see a full account of our 
principles.' We then produced two of the 'Apolo- 
gies' in Latin. 

" Then the Tzar talked again with his interpreter, 
who asked us, ' Were not these books writ by a 
Jesuit 1 It is said there are Jesuits among you.'* — 
To which Gilbert Mollyson replied, ' That is a cal- 
umny, and proves the necessity of our endeavours, 
\i\ that respect, at this time. We have no Jesuits 
among us. Our religion and theirs differ very widely. 
This book was writ by a near relation of mine, who 
was not a Jesuit, but sincerely of those principles 
asserted and maintained in the book, as our whole 
community is.' 

''And then the Tzar and interpreter talked toge- 
ther; after which the latter took some gold out of 
his pocket, and offered us for the books. But I told 
them, ' We were no such men as to want any thing 
for the books, or otherwise. They were a present 
to that great prince, and given freely : and all that 
we desired was that they might be acceptable ; and 
that in case any of our friends should, at any time 
hereafter, come into his country, and preach those 
principles contained in the books, and if they should 
meet with opposition, and be persecuted, by any 
officers or persons in power under him, for the same, 
he would please to afford them protection and relief.' 
^ —Then they talked together again, and the inter- 
"preter kept the books; and the Tzar and Prince 

* It was not without reason that Peter put this question. Just 
at this time a correspondence was passing between Bishop Til. 
lotson and William Penn, the former havin* charged the latter 
with keeping up a commuaicati^ with the Jesuits at Rome* 



80 MEMOIR OF 

Menzikoff retired into the room from whence they 
came. 

*' They beinff gone, we asked the interpreter * If 
that was the TzarT He said he was. Then we 
asked him if he had told the Tzar the substance of 
what we had said] And he said he bad. Then we 
desired that if he asked him any more questions 
about us and our rehgion, not to mention to him 
any of those rude calumnies thrown upon us by 
ignorant and malicious persons, but the truth, to the 
best of his observation and information ; and he 
promised he would. Then he told us that the 
Tzar did not understand the Latin tongue ; but only 
his own language, and Dutch. Then Gilbert Mollyson 
gave one of the ' Apologies' to the interpreter (for 
he had several with him), and so we departed in 
peace and satisfaction. 

" This w^as about the beginning of the week, and 
the next iirst day the Tzar, the prince, and a great 
company of his other attendants came in the morn- 
ing to our meeting in Grace-Church Street, all in 
English habits, like English gentlemen, and the 
same interpreter with him. I happened to be there 
in the gallery, and the first I knew was Menzikoff. 
Robert Haddock had begun to preach a little before 
they came in, upon the subject of ^ Naaman, the 
captain general of the host of the Assyrians, going 
to the prophet for cure of his leprosy,' &c. [Here 
follows the substance of Robert Haddock's ser- 
mon.] 

" And the Tzar and the interpreter were often 
whispering together in the time, though Robert 
Haddock knew nothing of his being in the meeting ; 
and thus he staid very sociably, till observing the 
people crowd up before him to gaze (which he could 
not endure), he retired on a sudden, along with his 
company, before the meeting was quite over; for 
some people in the streets had seen him as he came, 



PETER THE GREAT. 81 

and, by some means, had discovered who he was, 
and crowded afl:er him to see him more perfectly. 

" After this he went incognito to Deptford^ to im- 
prove himself in the art of ship-building, and there 
wrought at it with his own hands : and Gilbert 
Mollyson and I acquainting some Friends^ how wx 
happened to see him, and had given him some books, 
and that he understood the Dutch, William Penny 
George Whitehead, and some other friends went to 
Deptford, and waited on him privately, and presented 
him with more of the same books in that language, 
which he received very graciously. A conversation 
ensued between them in the same language, which 
William Penn spoke fluently. The Tzar appeared 
to be much interested by it, so that the visit was 
satisfactory to both parties. Indeed, he was so much 
impressed by it that afterward, while he was at 
Deptford, he occasionally attended the meeting of 
the Quakers there, where he conducted himself with 
great decorum and condescension, changing seats, 
and sitting down, and standing up, as he could best 
accommodate others. Nor was this impression of 
short duration, for in the year 1712, that is, sixteen 
years afterward, when he was at Frederickstadt, in 
Holstein, with five thousand men to assist the Danes 
against the Swedes, one of his first inquiries was, 
whether there were any Quakers in the place ; and 
being told there were, he signified his intention of 
attending one of their meetings. A meeting was 
accordingly appointed, to which he went, accompa- 
nied by Prince Menzikoff and General Dolgorucky, 
and several dukes and great men. Soon after they 
were seated the worship began ; Phihp Defair, a 
Quaker, rose up and preached. The Muscovite lords 
showed their respect by their silence, but they un- 
derstood nothing of what was said. To remedy this, 
the Tzar himself occasionally interpreted as the 
words were spoken, and when the discourse was 
over, he commended it by saying, that whoever 



82 MEMOIR OF 

could live according to such doctrines would be 
happy."* 

Storey further states that the " Friends" of Fred- 
erickstadt related many things of a good tendency 
concerning the Tzar, one of which was this, " That 
he used quite another way with his officers, and 
others, than had been reported of him, when in his 
own country : for he was so familiar, that he would 
have them call him sometimes by his name, and 
seemed better pleased with that way than his former 
distance : only in times of their worship, which they 
sometimes held in the market-place, he would then, 
as is usual at home, resume great dignity on him ; 
and one time, being rainy weather when they were 
at it, he wearing his own hair, pulled off the great 
wig from one of his dukes, and put it on himself, to 
cover him from the rain, making the owner stand 
bare-headed the while : for it seems he is so abso- 
lute, that there must be no grumbling at what he 
does, life and estate being wholly at his discretion." 

The practice here mentioned would seem to have 
been not unusual with the Tzar. One Sunday, being 
at Dantzic, on his second journey to Holland, he 
attended divine service, and was conducted by the 
burgomaster to his seat. Peter made the burgo- 
master sit down by him ; he listened to the preacher 
with the greatest attention, keeping his eyes con- 
stantly turned towards the pulpit, while those of the 
whole congregation were fixed upon himself. Feeling 
his head grow cold, Peter, apparently unconscious of 
what he was doing, took the large wig which flowed 
over the shoulders of the burgomaster off his head, 
and put it on his own, to the astonishment of the 
good people of Dantzic. When the sermon was 
ended, Peter restored the wig, and thanked the bur- 
gomaster by an inclination of the head. One of his 
nobles told the burgomaster that the Tzar was un« 

* Life of Thomas Storey, and Clarkson's Life of Wm. Penn. 



PETu-n THE GREAT. . 83 

mindful of such matters, and that it was t common 
custom with him when at church, as often as he felt 
his head cold, to take Menzikolf 's wig, or that of 
any other who liappencd to be within his reach.* 

One month's residence having satisfied Peter as to 
what was to be seen in London, and having expressed 
a strong desire to be near some of the king's dock- 
yards, it was arranged that a suitable residence 
should be found near one of the river estabhsh- 
ments ; and the house of the celebrated Mr. Evelyn, 
close to Deptford dock-yard being about to become 
vacant, by the removal of Admiral Benbow, whp was 
then its tenant, it was immediately taken for the 
residence of the Tzar and his suite ; and a doorway 
was broken through the boundary wall of the dock- 
yard, to afford a direct communication between it 
and the dwelling-house. This place had then the 
name of Saye's Court. It was the delight of Evelyn, 
and the wonder and admiration of all men of taste at 
that time. The grounds are described, in the hfe of 
the Lord-keeper Guildford, as " most boscaresque, 
being, as it were, an exemplary of his (Evelyn^s) 
book of forest trees." Admiral Benbow had given 
great dissatisfaction to the proprietor as a tenant, for 
he observes in his '' Diary'' — " I have the mortifica- 
tion of seeing, every day, much of my labour and 
expense there impairing from want of a more polite 
tenant." It appears, however, that the princely 
occupier was not a more " polite tenant" than the 
rough sailor had been, for Mr. Evelyn's servant thus 
WTites to him. — '' There is a house full of people 
right nasty. The Tzar lies next your library, and 
dines in the parlour next your study. He dines at 
ten o'clock and six at night ; is very seldom at home 
a whole day; very often in the king's yard, or by 
water, dressed in several dresses. The king is 
expected there this day ; the best parlour is pretty 

* StaBhlin ; authority of Mr. Wahl, syndic of Dantzic. 



84, MEMOIR Of 

clean for him to be entertained in. The king pays 
for all he has."* But this was not all : Mr. Evelyn 
had a favourite holly hedge, through which, it is said,> 
the Tzar, by way of exercise, used to be in the habit, 
every morning, of trundling a wheel-barrow. Mr. 
Evelyn probably alludes to this in the following 
passage, wherein he asks, *' Is there, under the 
heavens, a more glorious and refreshing object, of 
the kind, than an impregnable hedge of about four 
hundred feet in length, nine feet high, and five 
in diameter, which I can still show in my ruined 
garden at Saye's Court (thanks to the Tzar of Mus- 
covy), at any time of the year, glittering with its 
armed and variegated leaves ; the taller standards, 
at orderly distances, blushing with their natural 
coral 1 It mocks the rudest assaults of the weather, 
beasts, or hedge-breakers, — et ilium nemo impune 
lacessit."f 

Alas ! for the glory of the glittering hollies, 
trimmed hedges, and long avenues of Saye's Court ; 
Time, that great innovator, has demolished them 
all, and Evelyn's favourite haunts and enchanting 
grounds have been transformed into cabbage-gar- 
dens ; that portion of the victualling-yard where 
oxen and hogs are slaughtered and salted for the use 
of the navy, now occupies the place of the shady 
walks and the trimmed hedges, which the good old 
Evelyn so much delighted in ; and on the site of 
the ancient mansion now stands the common parish 
workhouse of Deptford Stroud. 

We have little evidence that the Tzar, during his 
residence here, ever worked as a shipwright ; it 
would seem that he was employed rather in acquir- 
ing information on matters connected with naval 
architecture, from that intelhgent commissioner of 
the navy and surveyor. Sir Anthony Deane, who, 
after the Marquis of Caermarthen, was his most in- 

* Memoirs of J. Evelyn. f Evelyn's Sylva. 



PETEK THE GREAT* 88 

timate English acquaintance. His fondness for sail- 
ing and managing boats, however, was as eager here 
as in Holland; and these gentlemen were almost 
daily with him on the Thames, sometimes in a sail- 
ing yacht, and at others rowing in boats, — an exer- 
cise in which both the Tzar and the marquis are 
said to have excelled. The Navy Board received 
directions from the Admiralty to hire two vessels, to 
be at the command of the Tzar, whenever he should 
think proper to sail on the Thames, to improve him- 
self in seamanship. In addition to these, the king 
made him a present of the " Royal Transport," with 
orders to have such alterations and accommodations 
made in her as his Tzarish majesty might desire, and 
also to change her masts, rigging, sails, &c. in any such 
way as he might think proper for improving her sail- 
ing qualities. But his great deUght was to get into 
a small decked boat, belonging to the dock-yard, and 
taking only MenzikofF and three or four others of 
his suite, to work the vessel with them, he being the 
helmsman ; by this practice he said he should be able 
to teach them how to command ships when they got 
home. Having finished their day's work, they used to 
resort to a public-house in Great Tower-street, close 
to Tower-hill, to smoke their pipes and drink beer 
and brandy. The landlord had the Tzar of Musco- 
vy's head painted and put up for his sign, which 
continued till the year 1808, when a person of the 
name of Waxel took a fancy to the old sign, and 
offered the then occupier of the house to paint him 
a new one for it. A copy was accordingly made 
from the ariginal, which maintains its station to the 
present day, as the sign oi ^he " Tzar of Muscovy," 
looking like a true Tartar. 

His attention was forcibly attracted to the mag- 
nificent building of Greenwich Hospital, which, until 
he had visited it, and seen the old pensioners, he had 
some difficulty in believing to be any thing but a 
royal palace. King William, having one day asked 
H 



86 MEMOIR OF 

him how he liked his hospital for decayed setimen, 
the Tzar answered, *' If I were the adviser of your 
majesty, 1 should counsel you to remove your court 
to Greenwich, and convert SU James's mto an hos- 
pital."* 

It being term time while the Tzar was in London, 
he was taken into Westminster Hall ; he inquired 
who all those busy people in black gowns and flow* 
ings wigs were, and what they were about 1 Being 
answered, " They are lawyers, sir ;"— " Lawyers !" 
said he, with marks of astonishment, — "why, 1 have 
but two in my whole dominions, and I believe I shall 
hang one of them the moment I get home/'f 

In the first week of March, Vice-admiral Mitchell 
was ordered to repair forthwith to Spithead, and, 
taking several ships (eleven in number) under his 
command, hoist the blue flag at the fore-topmast 
head of one of them. It is not stated for what purpose 
these vessels were put under his command, nor was 
any public order given. But the " Postman,"J under 
date of 26th March, says, " On Tuesday the Tzar of 
Muscovy went on board Admiral Mitchell, in his 
majesty's ship the Humber, who presently hoisted 
sail and put to sea from Spithead, as did also his 
majesty's ships the Restauration, Chichester, Defi- 
ance, Svviftsure, York, Monmouth, Dover, Kingston, 
Coventry, Seaforth, and Swan." And the Flying- 
post, or Postmaster,^ has the following intelligence : 
'" The representation of a sea engagement was ex- 
cellently performed before the Tzar of Muscovy, and 
continued a considerable time, each ship having 
twelvepounds of powder allowed ; but all their bul- 
lets were locked up in the hold, lor fear the sailors 
should mistake." It is stated in the logs of the 

* StaehUn. Authority, Mr. Rondeau, English resident at 
Moscow. 

t Gentleman's Mag. vol. vii. 
. i Postman, No. 441. ^ Postmaster, No. 449. 



PETER THE GREAT. 87 

Humber and the Kin^^ston that they had two sham- 
fights ; that the ships were divided into two squad- 
rons, and every ship took her opposite and fired 
three broadsides aloft and one alow, without shot. 
The Tzar was extremely pleased with the perform- 
ance. It is said, indeed, he was so much delighted 
with every thing he saw in the British navy, that he 
told Admiral Mitchell he considered the condition 
of an English admiral happier than that of a Tzar of 
Russia.* 

On returning from Portsmouth, Peter and his 
party stopped at Godalming for the night ; where, it 
would appear from the bill of fare, they feasted 
lustily. Among the papers of Ballard's Collection, 
in the Bodleian Library, is one from Mr. Humphrey 
Wanleyt to Dr. Charlett,^ which contains the fol- 
lowing passage : — " I cannot vouch for the follow- 
ing bill of fare, which the Tzar and his company, 
thirteen at table, and twenty -one in all, ate up at 
Godalming (or Godliming), in Surrey, in their way 
home, — but it is averred for truth by an eyewitness, 
who saw them eating, and had this bill from the land- 
lord. At breakfast — half a sheep, a quarter of lamb, 
ten pullets, twelve chickens, three quarts of brandy, 
six quarts of mulled wine, seven<iozen of eggs, with 
salad in proportion. At dinner — five ribs of beef, 
weight three stone ; one sheep, fifty-six pounds ; 
three quarters of lamb, a shoulder and loin of veal 
boiled, eight pullets, eight rabbits, two dozen and a 
half of sack, one dozen of claret."^ 

* Nestesuranoi. Mottley. 

t Author of '' Wonders of the little World." 

% Master of University College. 

(} There are among our countrymen those who are scarcely 
outdone by the Tzar of Russia and his companions. At the 
same place, and probably at the same house, long known as 
Moon's, two noble dukes, the one dead, the other yet living, 
stopped, as they intended, for a moment, while sitting in their 
carriages, to eat a mutton chop, w^hich they found so good that 
they each of them devoured eighteen, and drank five bottles of 
claret. 



88 MEMOIR OF 

It would appear, indeed, from all accounts, that 
the Tzar was a prodigiously hard drinker in his 
younger days. In a letter from Mr. A. Bertie to Dr. 
Charlett, and in the same collection, ho says, " The 
Tzar lay the other night at Mr. James Herbert's, 
being come from Deptford to see the Redoubt,*" 
which the justices have suppressed, by placing six 
constables at the door. Upon that disappointment, 
he fell to drinking hard at one Mr. Morley's ; and 
the Marquis of Caermarthen, it being late, resolved 
to lodge him at his brother-in-law's, where he dined 
the next day— drank a pint of brandy and a bottle of 
sherry for his morning draught ; and, after that, 
about eight more bottles of sack, and so went to 
the playhouse."! 

The Marquis of Caermarthen acted as his guide to 
all public places of amusement; for which, how- 
ever, it does not appear Peter had any great relish, 
probably from not being sufficiently acquainted with 
our language to comprehend what was going on ; 
twice or thrice only he went to the theatre, — but 
the only object there that particularly struck his 
fancy was an actress of the name of Cross, who was 
afterward, — so the gossip of the day had it, — intro- 
duced to him ; and *this is the only amour, if it was 
one, that is recorded of the Tzar while in England. 
With the Tower of London he appeared to be highly 
pleased, more particularly with the beautiful arrange- 
ment of the armory. 

The king having given a grand ball at St. James's, 
in honour of the princess's birth-day, Peter was in- 
vited ; but instead of mixing with the company, he 
was put into a small room, from whence he could 
see all that passed without being himself seen. This 
extraordinary aversion for a crowd kept him away 
from all great assemblies. Once, indeed, he at- 

* It is presumed some notorious place of ill-fame. 
t Ballard's Collection. Bodleian. 



PETER THE GREAT. 89 

tempted to subdue it, from a desire to hear the 
debates in the House of Commons, but even then 
the Marquis of Caermarthen c6uld not prevail on him 
to go into the body of the house. He therefore 
placed him in some situation where he could hear 
and see what was going- on without being himself 
noticed ; perhaps he was on the brink of that hole in 
the ceiling which is now, on great occasions, fre- 
quented by certain ladies who dabble in politics, and 
by others from mere curiosity to listen to debates, 
from which, by custom and common consent, females 
have been excluded ; paying the penalty of their 
defiance, by inhaling a neither pleasant nor whole- 
some atmosphere. 

Having dined with the king at Kensington, he was 
prevailed on to see the ceremony of his majesty 
passing four bills ; but it appears from a note of 
Lord Dartmouth, that here, as in the Commons, he 
avoided going into the house. His lordship says, 
" He had a great dislike to being looked at, but had 
a mind to see the king in pariiamejit ; in order to 
which he was placed in a gutter upon the house-top, 
to peep in at the window, where he made so ridicu- 
lous a figure, that neither king nor people could for- 
bear laughing, which obliged him to retire sooner 
than he intended." 

From the same authority we learn that Peter was, 
at another time, placed in an awkward situation. 
*'The king made the Tzar a visit, in which an odd 
incident happened. The Tzar had a favourite mon- 
key, which sat upon the back of his chair ; as soon 
as the king was sat down, the monkey jumped upon 
him, in some wrath, which discomposed the whole 
ceremonial, and most of the time was afterward spent 
in apologies for the monkey's misbehaviour."* 

The Tzar is said to have paid a visit to the Uni- 

* Lord Dartmouth.— Note in Burnet's History of his own 
Times. 

H2 



m MEMOm OF 

versity of Oxford ; but not a trace appears on any 
of the records of that University of his having ever 
done so. His body physician, Posnikof, who staid 
in England some months behind his master, is, how- 
ever, known to have been there. Mr.Wanley writes 
thus, from London, to Dr. Charlett ;— " I will wait 
on the doctor (Posnikof), and if you had been pleased 
to have given me orders, I would have been at Ox- 
ford before now, for his sake, and returned hither 
with him again. His master (the Tzar) gave the 
king's servants, at his departure, one hundred and 
twenty guineas, which was more than they deserved, 
they being very rude to him ; but to the king he pre- 
sented a rough ruby, which the greatest jewellers of 
Amsterdam (as well Jews as Christians) valued at 
ten thousand pounds sterling. 'Tis bored through, 
and when it is cut and polished, it must be set upon 
the top of the imperial crown of P^ngland."* 

He was introduced to the Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, at his palace of Lambeth, and having expressed 
a desire to see the different churches of the capital, 
and to observe the mode in which the service was 
conducted, the archbishop recommended Bishop 
Burnet to gratify his curiosity in this respect ; and 
to give him all the information (of which none was 
more capable) that he might require on ecclesias- 
tical matters. From this dignitary of the church 
we have some information respecting the manner 
and appearance of this extraordinary character. He 
says, he waited on him frequently, having been or- 
dered, both by the king and the archbishop, to attend 
upon him, and to offer him such information as to 
our religion and constitution as he might be willing 
to receive. " 1 had good interpreters," continues 
the bishop, " so I had much free discourse with him. 

* Ballard's Collection. Bodleian. With plain downright 
simplicity, and free from all ostentation, Peter carried this 
valuable ruby to the king in his waistcoat pocket, and presented 
it wrapped up in a piece of brown paper. 



PETER THE GREAT. 91 

He is a man of very hot temper, soon influenced, 
and very brutal in his passion ; he raises his natural 
heat by drinking much brandy, which he rectifies 
himself, vvitli great appUcation ; he is subject to con- 
vulsive motions all over his body, and his head seems 
to be affected with these. He wants not capacity, 
and has a larger measure of know^ledge than might 
be expected from his education, which was very in- 
different ; a want of judgment, with an instability of 
temper, appears in him too often and too evidently. 
He is mechanically turned, and seems designed by 
nature rather to be a ship-carpenter than a great 
prince. This was his chief study and exercise while 
he staid here. He wrought much with his own 
hands, and made all about him vv^ork, at the models 
of ships. He told me he designed a great fleet at 
Asoph, and with it to attack the Turkish empire ; but 
he did not seem capable of conducting so great a 
design, though his conduct in his wars, since this, 
has discovered a greater genius in him than appeared 
at that time. He was desirous to understand our 
doctrine, but he did not seem disposed to mend 
matters in Muscovy. He was, indeed, resolved ta 
encourage learning, and to polish his people, by 
sending some of them to travel in other countries, 
and to draw strangers to come and live among them„ 
He seemed apprehensive still of his sister's intrigues. 
There is a mixture both of passion and severity in 
his temper. He is resolute, but understands little. 
of war, and seemed not at all inquisitive in that way.* 
After I had seen him often, and had conversed much 
with him, I could not but adore the depth of the pro- 
vidence of God, that had raised up such a furious 
man to so absolute an authority over so great a part 
of the world."! 

* [There is something whimsical in the idea of this church- 
man criticising Peter's military capacity ; especially when the 
monarch's subsequent career is considered.] 

t Burnet's History of his own Times. 



92 MEMOIR OF 

He goes on to say, " David, considering the great 
things God had made for the use of man, broke out 
into the meditation ' What is man, that Ihou art so 
mindful of him V But here there is occasion for 
reversing these words, since man seems a very con- 
temptible thing in the sight of God, while such a 
person as the Tzar has such multitudes put, as it 
were, under his feet, exposed to his restless jealousy 
and savage temper. He went from hence to the 
court of Vienna, where he proposed to have staid 
some time, but he was called home sooner than he 
intended, upon a discovery, or a suspicion, of in- 
trigues, managed by his sister; the strangers to 
whom he trusted most had been so true to him that 
those dangers were crushed before he came back ; 
but on this occasion he let loose his fury on all whom 
he suspected ; some hundreds of them were hanged 
all round Moscow, and it was said that he cut off 
many heads with his own hands ; and so far was he 
from relenting, or showing any sort of tenderness, 
that he seemed delighted with it. How long he is 
to be the scourge of that nation or his neighbours, 
God only knows !"* 

It is always hazardous to prophesy, and the bishop 
was particularly unfortunate in his estimation of 
some parts of the Tzar's character. Had he been 
able to converse with him without the medium of an 
interpreter, he might perhaps have come to a difierent 
conclusion in some respects ; though, at the same 
time, it must be owned, Peter had not then evinced 
snuch capacity, or even ambition, to take his place 
among the great statesmen and legislators of the 
world. Burnet thought that in matters of religious 
doctrine " he did not seem disposed to mend them 
in Muscovy." An incident however occurred, which 
proved that he had already intended, on his return 
to his own country, wholly to reform and amend the 

• Burnet's History of his own Times. 



PETKR THE GREAT. 93 

state of the clergy and the church of Russia. It 
was this : — 

Some of the principal merchants of London, 
through the intervention of the Marquis of Caermar- 
then, had prevailed on Menzikoff and Golownin to 
propose a treaty with the Tzar to allow a free import- 
ation of tobacco into Russia, which was prohibited, 
or admitted only on payment of such high duties as 
amounted to a prohibition. The Tzar assented, but 
on condition only of their paying down to him twelve 
or, as some say, fifteen thousand pounds, for this ex- 
clusive privilege ; stipulating at the same time that 
none should be imported into his dominions without 
the special Hcense of the Marquis of Caermarthen, 
who, it is said, was to receive five shillings for every 
hogshead so hcensed. Now the use of tobacco was 
abhorred by the priesthood, as an unclean thing and 
an abomination before the Lord ; and this was stated 
by the chairman of the merchants. Sir Gilbert Heath- 
cote, as a prejudice that might render the contract, 
as far as regarded them, of no eflfect ; on which the 
Tzar observed, "He knew very well how to deal 
with the priests when he 2:ot home ;" or, as Sir Gil- 
bert himself told it, " When I return to my own 
country, you will find I shall make my priests preach 
and do what I please ;"* — and it will be seen that he 
did so. 

The bishop says he wrought much with his own 
hands, and made all about him work, at the models 
of ships. Whom he had with him, besides Menzi- 
koff and Golownin, does not anywhere appear, but 
the Postmanf of the 29th March says, " The Tzar 
of Muscovy is returned from Portsmouth to Dept- 
ford, where his second ambassado]; is arrived from 
Holland." The two principal Russian workmen in 
Holland, of rank, were Menzikofi" and the Prince 
Siberski, the latter of whom is said to have been able 

* Mottley. t No. 442. 



94 MEMOIR OF 

to rig a ship from top to bottom. The object in re- 
maining at Deptford would appear to have been, as 
before stated, chiefly to gain instruction how to lay 
off the lines of ships and cut out the moulds; though 
it is said, on the testimony of an old man, a work- 
man at Deptford yard some forty years ago, that he 
had heard his father* say, the Tzar of Muscovy 
worked with his own hands as hard as any man in 
the yard. If so, it could only have been for a very 
short time, and probably for no other purpose than 
to show the builders that he knew how to handle the 
adze as well as themselves. 

When residing at Deptford he requested to see the 
celebrated Dr. Halley, to whom he communicated 
his plans of building a fleet, and in general of intro- 
ducing the arts and sciences into his country, and 
asked his opinion and advice on various subjects ; 
the doctor spoke German fluently, and the Tzar was 
so much pleased with the philosopher's conversation 
and remarks, that he had him frequently to dine with 
him ; and in his company he visited the royal obser- 
vatory in Greenwich Park. 

As in Amsterdam, so also in London, he visited 
the manufactories and workshops of various artifi- 
cers, and purchased whatever he deemed either 
curious or useful ; and among other things " he 
bought the famous geographical clock made by Mr. 
John Carte, watchmaker, at the sign of the dial and 
crown, near Essex-street, in the Strand, which clock 
tells what o'clock it is in any part of the world, 
whether it is day or night, the sun's rising and set- 
ting throughout the year, its entrance into the signs 
of the zodiac ; the arch which they and the sun in 
them makes abo\e or below the horizon, with several 
other curious motions."! He was very curious in 

^ Mr. James Sibbon, who was a journeyman shipwright in 
Deptford yard when the Tzar was there ; he died in 1769, aged 
105 years. — Annual I^egisterfor 1769, 

f Postman, No. 136. 



PETER THE GREAT. 95 

examining the mechanism of a watch, and it is said 
he could take one of these ingenious machines to 
pieces, and put it together again, before he left 
London. 

The king had promised Peter that there should be 
no impediment in his way of engaging, and taking 
with him to Russia, such English artificers and scien- 
tific men as he might desire, with such instruments 
as their trade or profession required. For this pur- 
pose he entered into an engagement with Mr. Fer- 
guson, a native of Scotland and an excellent mathe- 
matician ; and, at his recommendation, two young 
students from the school of Christ-chureh Hospital 
accompanied him. To these persons the Muscovite 
exchequer was indebted for the change from balls 
strung on a wire, the stianpan of the Chinese, to the 
simple Arabic numerals: so tardy was the intro- 
duction into Russia of one of the most useful and 
important inventions that ever benefited mankind. 

The Tzar engaged also Perry, the engineer, for 
the purpose of superintending the construction of 
harbours, sluices, and bridges, which he had in 
contemplation ; and more particularly to carry into 
execution the grand scheme of opening a communi- 
cation, by means of canals, between the Baltic, the 
Caspian, and the Black Sea. He engaged also vari- 
ous workmen who had been accustomed to labour 
in the several branches of civil, military, and naval 
architecture. The fair promises, however, and even 
actual agreements, to which many of these persons 
had trusted, were broken not long after their arrival 
in Russia. The Tzar, or his officers, refused to let 
those who were dissatisfied return to their own 
cotmtry — they could neither obtain their arrears of 
pay nor passports. Perry complains that every 
obstruction was thrown in his way ; that he could 
neither procure materials nor workmen, and that, at 
the end of six years, they deducted the monthly 
subsistence, which was agreed to be given him, from 



96 MEMOIR OF 

his salary, and paid him the remainder in depreciated 
coin. Ferguson's case was still harder ; one part 
of his agreement was, that for every scholar whom 
he taught navigation, and who was seift into the 
navy, he should receive one hundred rubles; and 
when Captain Perry left Russia he had so sent out 
seventy scholars, but had not been able to get one 
penny of the money. One of the young men frem 
Christ's Hospital was murdered in the street, and 
the other never could get one-half of the allowance 
that was promised. In short, the natives did all in 
their power to annoy and disgust foreigners. Peter, 
however, was less to blame for this neglect and in- 
justice than his official servants. In the army, 
which was under his immediate eye, foreigners met 
with every encouragement, at least from the Tzar, 
and many of them were domiciled in Russia. A 
Scotchman named Best, a lieutenant in the army, 
was among those who went with Peter from this 
country. The word best^ it seems, signifies, in the 
Russian language, leasts which so annoyed the 
northern lad that he complained of it to the Tzar, 
who told him he would soon put him at ease on that 
score — •' You shall be called Besivchef, and then you 
will be as good a Russian as myself." The son of 
this lieutenant was the celebrated Alexey Bestuchef, 
grand chancellor to the Empress Elizabeth.* 

The number of all descriptions of persons that 
finally left England, when the Tzar returned to 
Holland, is stated to have been nearly as follows: 
— Three captains of ships of war, twenty-five cap- 
tains of merchant-ships, thirty pilots, thirty surgeons,^ 
two hundred gunners, four mast-makers, four boat- 
builders, two master sail-makers and twenty work- 
men, two compass-makers, two carvers, two anchor- 
smiths, two lock-smiths, two copper-smiths, and two 
tinmen ; making, with some others, not much less than 

* Tooke's Life of Catharine ILj 



PETER THE GREAT. 97 

five hundred persons. However uncouth the man- 
ners of Peter may have been, he was a great favour- 
ite with King WiUiam, and the Tzar had also a high 
opinion of his majesty, whom he visited frequently, 
and consulted on all important occasions. The king 
engaged him to sit for his portrait to Sir Godfrey 
Kneller, who painted a very good picture, said to be 
a strong likeness, which is now at Windsor, and 
the portrait at the head of this volume is engraved 
from it. 

To convey the Tzar and persons above mentioned 
to Holland, the Admiralty, on the 18th April, di- 
rected Vice-admiral Mitchell to take under his 
orders his majesty's ships Greenwich and Yorke, 
together with the Fubbs, Henrietta, Catharine, and 
Mary, yachts, and to convey him, his ambassadors, 
and suite to Holland; and to consult the conve- 
nience of his majesty as to the arrangement of his 
company, and the port to which he might be desi- 
rous of proceeding. He remained but a short time 
in Holland, from whence he proceeded to Vienna^ 
where he and his ambassadors were received with 
great pomp and splendour by the Emperor Leopold, 
and were entertained during their stay with dinners, 
balls, and concerts, in a style of magnificent hospi- 
tality. But entertainments of this kind were not 
exactly suited to the taste of the Tzar. His grand 
object in visiting Vienna was to make himself ac- 
qainted with the dress and accoutrements, the dis- 
cipline, and tactics of the emperors army, con- 
sidered at that time to be composed of the best 
troops in Europe. 

During his residence at the emperor's court, 
Peter received accounts from the young nobles 
whom he had despatched to Italy under General 
Scherematof, stating the preparations which the 
senate of Venice was making for the reception of 
so great a monarch ; and the desire which his holi- 
ness the pope had expressed to receive him in a 



98 MEMOIR OF 

manner suited to his high station, indulging a hope 
that his visit might have the effect, so long wished 
for, of reuniting the Greek and Latin churches. 
One of the young persons sent to Venice was of the 
family of Golownin, a favourite of the Tzar ; his 
instructions were to make himself acquainted with 
the construction of their galleys, and with the 
Italian language. This is the person probably who 
is said never to have quitted his room, that he 
might not have to reproach himself with seeing any 
other country than his own, which was considered 
by the Muscovite priests as a horrible crime. When, 
at the expiration of four years, he returned, and 
Peter took him to Voronitz, that he might there 
judge of the progress he had made, he soon dis^ 
covered that he knev/ nothing of naval architecture. 
The Tzar good-naturedly observed, he supposed he 
had passed his time in studying the language and 
literature : he said no, he knew nothing of either* 
" Then what the devil have you been doing at Ven- 
ice ]" asked the Tzar. " Sire," he replied, " I smoked 
my pipe, 1 drank brandy, and very rarely stirred out 
of my room." Peter, half- angry and half-laughing, 
told him to get out of his sight, for that he was 
only jfit to be made one of his fools. 

At the moment, however, that Peter was prepar* 
ing to set out on his journey to Italy, he received 
intelligence from Moscow that demanded his imme- 
diate presence in that capital. This was nothing 
'ess than an account of a rebellion which had bro- 
Ken out among the Strelitzes, fomented, as most of 
the accounts stated, by the priests and the party of 
Sophia, who had infused into the minds of the peo- 
ple that the object of the Tzar's travels was to sub- 
vert their holy religion ; to bring a host of foreign- 
ers among them ; and to change the ancient man- 
ners and customs of his subjects ; and that the first 
thing would be to cashier the whole corps of the 
Strelitzes* Thus abetted, these people, to the 



PETER THE GREAT. 99 

number of about 8000, marched from the borders of 
Lithuania toward Moscow, but were opposed by- 
General Patrick Gordon. He first began to parley 
with them, and told them if they had any grievances 
he would see them redressed ; but they would 
listen to no terms, and persisted in forcing their 
way to Moscow. A battle ensued, in which a great 
number of these infatuated men were slain, and the 
rest surrendered themselves prisoners, and were 
marched to the capital. Several examinations Avere 
made in order to detect the real abetters, and the 
object of the rebellion ; and numbers were thrown 
into prison to await the decision of the Tzar, who 
would undoubtedly return with all speed, on being 
made acquainted with the disagreeable intelligence. 



CHAPTER V. 



The Tzar inflicts dreadful Punishment on the Conspirators — 
Commences his System of Reform — Death of Le Fort — 
Prepares a large Fleet at Voronitz, on the Don — Commences 
a War with Sweden. 

We have 3^et seen nothing of the character and 
actions of the Tzar Peter which could convey any 
impression but that of his being a lively, bustling, 
well-conditioned man; kind-hearted and grateful 
for any little attention bestowed on him ; and that 
his errors or deficiencies were those of education 
only. He must now, however, be exhibited in a 
different point of view. He had now seen a little 
of the world beyond the confines of Russia: he 
had now witnessed the comforts of that civilized 
and social life which he found the people generally 
to enjoy under a free government, where commerce 
flourished, and the arts and sciences were culti- 
vated and encouraged ; and it can hardly be suppose^ 
that, amid all his extravagant freaks and froiicksome 



100 MEMOIR OF 

manners, not always quite becoming the high des- 
tiny to which he had been called, he had been re- 
gardless of the importance of the situation he was 
about to fulfil, and of the duties that would be 
required of him. On the contrary, he gave many 
proofs that, without ostentation, he was employed 
in treasuring up lessons of experience, collected 
both in Holland and England. He had, besides, now 
attained a period of life when thoughtless levity 
may be expected to give way to sober reflection. 
He had a son, too, whose advancing years claimed 
a father's attention, in preparing for him an educa- 
tion more suitable than his own had been, for the 
heir-apparent to a throne, which, as far as human 
foresight could determine, he was destined to fill. 

" During seventeen months," says a modern wri- 
ter, " Germany, Holland, England, Austria, had their 
eyes on a young barbarian of five-and-twenty, whom 
a perfidious sister had delivered up, from the most 
tender age, to the most violent passions ; who, de- 
lighting in wine, in women, in command — had left 
his absolute throne, a war successfully commenced, 
and all the seductions which besiege power— to 
visit, with the compass, the hatchet, the scalpel, in 
his hand, their manufactories, their workshops, their 
hospitals, and to study practically those sciences 
which alone, in the midst of his subjects, he had 
judged indispensable to their prosperity, to their 
glory, to their independence. This example," he 
adds, " unique in history, is, without doubt, the ex- 
ample of a despot — a despot by birth, a despot by 
condition, by necessity, by the ascendency of genius, 
by temperament, and because slaves must, of neces- 
sity, have a master — but, what is most irreconcila- 
ble, a despot m.ore patriotic, more constantly and 
entirely devoted to the welfare of his country, than 
any republican citizen, whether ancient or modern."* 

"* Histoire de Russie, &c. par M. Le G^n^ral Comte de 
S^gur. 



PETER THE GREAT. 101 

Never, perhaps, in the history of the world, was 
a young monarch possessed of supreme and undi- 
vided authority. " a despot by condition and neces- 
sity," placed in a more trying situation than that of 
Peter on his arrival at Moscow. A third rebellion, 
fomented by the same instruments as the former, 
had broken forth in his absence, whose object was 
to subvert the government and deprive him of the 
throne. It is true, it had been quelled by the exer- 
tions and able measures taken by General Patrick 
Gordon ; but the chiefs of the conspirators and the 
numerous prisoners had not been disposed of. It 
was, besides, the general belief that the members of 
his own family would be found among the agents 
and instigators of the undisciplined and lawless rab- 
ble ; and that the trial and the punishment of the 
principal offenders shouM be left, till the arrival of 
him who was most deeply interested in the issue. 
It was admitted by all who were not blinded by 
prejudice, that nothing was left to the Tzar but to 
destroy his enemies, or to become their victim ; and 
such was, undoubtedly, the opinion they impressed 
on his mind. 

Peter, therefore, at once determined, by an ex- 
treme severity of punishment, to crush any future 
attempt in the quarter from which he had every 
reason to believe the disturbances had proceeded. 
Accordingly, on the day after his arrival, he com- 
menced his proceedings by ordering rich rewards to 
be bestowed on the soldiers who had distinguished 
themselves against the rebels : all the agents, known 
or suspected to have been concerned in the revolt, 
were examined before the assembled senators, boy- 
ars, and military officers, in his presence, and many 
of them sentenced to death. Some were first bro- 
ken on the wheel, and then beheaded. Many were 
hung on gibbets, erected near the gates of the city. 
Numerous dead bodies of the first class of citizens 
were laid by the sides of the highway, with their 
12 



102 MEMOIR OF 

heads near them, where they were suffered to remam 
in a frozen state the whole whiter, as a terror and 
example to all passengers. Stone pillars were 
erected along the roads, on which were recorded the 
crime and punishment of the rebels. It is stated, in 
some accounts, that two thousand of the Strelitzes 
were put to death, but Gordon* mentions nothing of 
this ; indeed, such wholesale murder is highly im- 
probable. About four thousand had been put in 
prison ; they perhaps were decimated, and the rest 
dispersed through the distant provinces of the em- 
pire. 

The details of these executions, if true to their 
full extent, are horrible — and for the severity of 
them it is difficult to find apology or palliation : they 
appear to have been more than was necessary, even 
in Russia, and under the very worst view that can 
be taken of the circumstances of the case. It is 
true that, in the time of Peter, heads were taken 
off with as little ceremony in Muscovy as in Mo- 
rocco ; but the Tzar had never yet shown himself a 
vengeful character, or that his mind was steeled 
against the sympathies of human nature. He might 
have thought, with Hamlet, that, on the present 
occasion, " he must be cruel only to be kind ;" and 
that a terrible example was necessary to prevent 
the recurrence of such a revolt. It is not to be 
credited, however, that he was such a monster as 
some of the foreign ministers at his court have rep- 
resented; such as, in particular, a person of the 
name of Korb, secretary to the Austrian envoy, has 
described, in a journal written in Latin, filled with 
all manner of falsehoods and absurdities. This 

* This is tlip. author, Alexander, not Patrick ; as the latter 
was the general who vanquished the rebels, it is much to be 
wished that his manuscript journal had not been sent back to 
Russia: there is every likelihood that its pubhcation would at 
least lighten the stain which foreign writers have endeavoured 
to fix on the character of Peter in this transaction. 



PETER THE GREAT. 103 

man says, that the Tzar ordered each of the judges 
to be the executioner of his own sentence ; that 
Peter himself struck off the heads of eighty persons, 
the boyar Plescovv holding the criminals by the hair, 
that his majesty might have a fair stroke ; that 
Prince Boris Galitzin took off five-and-twenty heads, 
but so clumsily that the criminals suffered greatly ; 
that Prince Rodomonowski performed no better; 
that not less than two hundred of the Strelitzes 
were roasted on piles of wood ; and he further 
states, that M. Le Fort and Baron de Plumberg 
begged to be excused from taking upon them the 
office of executioners, alleging it was not the cus- 
tom of their country ; that the excuse was admitted, 
but, at the same time, the Tzar observed, " there 
was no sacrifice more agreeable to the Deity than 
the blood of a criminal." 

Another of these diplomatic gentlemen, from the 
court of Prussia, of the name of Printz, has stated 
in his private memoirs, said to be deposited in the 
archives of Berlin, that, at a great entertainment 
given by Peter I., this sovereign caused to be 
brought from their prisons about twenty of the 
Strelitzes ; that, at each glass which he emptied, he 
struck off one of their heads with his own hand ; 
and that he proposed to this envoy to try his skill in 
this business. An account of this exhibition, it 
seems, was sent by Frederick II. to Voltaire, who, 
however, had sufficient grounds, in the documents 
sent to him from Russia, for refusing all credit to 
the absurd tale of an envoy. It has been observed, 
indeed, that, in his history of Charles XTL, he had 
credited the story. This is true, but, at that time, 
he had only the reports of those diplomatists. 
From them he there says, " He (the Tzar) has been 
known to execute, with his own hands, his own 
sentences against criminals ; and, at a table debauch, 
display his dexterity at cutting off heads." 



104 MEMOIR OF 

These monstrous stories have, however, at a 
much later period, been copied by a respectable 
writer,* who ought to have considered the degree 
of credit that was due to the Austrian secretary, 
who professes his only authority to have been de- 
rived from some German officers in the service of 
Peter; who, in all likelihood, were quizzing the 
secretary, or cramming him with food for a des- 
patch to his employers. The statement that Le 
Fort was present at these pretended orgies is quite 
sufficient to prove the falsehood of such a story, 
but has not prevented a repetition of it by a modern 
author, whose imaginative genius and theatrical 
style are exercised to produce effect rather than to 
state fact. " The cruel Tzar," he says, " from the 
height of his throne, assists with a dry eye at 
these executions ; he does more ; he mingles with 
the joys of the table the horrors of the punishment. 
Drunk with wine and with blood, the glass in one 
hand, the hatchet in the other, in one single hour 
twenty successive libations mark the fall of twenty 
heads of the Strelitz."! 

The same Korb, whose authority even Mr. Coxe 
says is to be depended on, talks of two hundred and 
thirty Strelitzes being hung up close to the windows 
of the nunnery in which Sophia was confined. Gor- 
don, it is true, says, Peter caused a gallows to be 
set up opposite to the windows of her apartments, 
whereon he ordered three Strelitzes to be hung up, 
holding petitions towards her in their hands. This 
was a cruel and brutal act, even if Sophia, which 
was not proved, had any share in the conspiracy. 

These executions being ended^ and- the whole 
body of the Strelitzes dispersed and drafted into the 
different regiments recently formed, the attention 
0f Peter was immediately directed to a more pleas* 

* Levesque, Histoire de Russie, published in 17Q5. 
i Histoire de Eussie, par M. Le Segur. 



PETER THE GREAT. 105 

ing, and, it is to be hoped, a more congenial sub- 
ject, — the regeneration of his country, and the aug- 
mentation and better organization of the regular 
army. The dress of the Russian soldier was on 
the Tartar model — a long coat reaching to the heels 
and belted round the waist, loose drawers not un- 
like a petticoat, a conical helmet or cap on the 
head, and a face covered with a long bushy beard — 
all which, besides the awkward appearance, was 
highly inconvenient, and served only as a cover for 
indolence, inactivity, and fJth. The objection to 
such a dress was equally applicable in civil as in 
military life ; but he knew well enough the odium 
he would excite by shortening the skirts and shaving 
the beards of his subjects, and that some risk would 
be incurred, by attacking the ancient prejudices, the 
fixed habits, and the barbarous manners of a whole 
nation. He was aware that he would have to com- 
bat with thousands that were enemies to all reform, 
and to himself personally ; and that the millions of 
serfs and slaves even would resent, if not resist, such 
an attack on their deep-rooted prejudices. Even 
those who were most friendly disposed grew 
frightened at the sweeping reform which they 
knew he had in contemplation : some from a general 
dislike of innovation ; others, because their interests 
were likely to be affected ; and others, again, for no 
better reason than a desire that things should re- 
main as they were, and had so long been, thinking 
probably, with the simple Ophelia, " We know what 
we are, but know not what we may be." These 
considerations did not escape the Tzar, but 'he 
deemed it worth the trial, at some hazard, to remove 
the exterior emblems of barbarism, and to substi- 
tute the more decent and commodious garb of civil- 
zation — and thus to remove the visible bar of sepa- 
ration between the Russian and the Western Euro- 
pean. 
He ordained, therefore, that not the army alone, 



106 



MEMOIR OF 



but all ranks of citizens, should shave their beards, 
and dock the skirts of their coats ; and that on all 
those, who after a given time should disobey the 
order, a tax should be levied of one hundred rubles, 
which soon became a productive source of revenue, 
such was the pertinacity in preserving their beards, 
as a distinguishing mark from foreigners, for whom 
they entertained an inveterate hatred. The priests 
and the peasantry were only required to pay a copeck 
every time they passed the gate of a city. The col- 
lectors of this tax gave a small copper coin as a re- 
ceipt, on one side of which was stamped the figure 
of a nose, mouth, mustachios, and a long bushy 
beard, with the words " token of payment," and on 
the reverse the date of the year.* 

* Parmi les monnaies fiappees sous le regne de L'Empereur 
Pierre le Grand, on remarque une piece nommee *' horodovaia" 
(barbue) ; elle portait en effigie un profil, avec une barbe. Elle 
se distribuoit aux schismatiques qui payaient un impot pour 
conserver le droit de porter la barbe. — Le Compte de Laveau. 



On one side Deuyee Vyeatee — money 
received. 



On the other Goda, An. 1705. 




PETER THE GREAT. 107 

We have Peter's own account of the reform which 
he commenced in the year 1699. He says, he regu- 
lated the printing-press — -caused translations to be 
made and printed of different books on engineering, 
artillery, mechanics, and other arts, as well as books 
of history and chronology. He founded a school 
for the marine, and by degrees those for other sci- 
ences and arts ; schools also for the Latin, German, 
and other languages. He permitted his subjects to 
trade in foreign countries, which before they could 
not do on pain of death; and not only gave them 
permission, but obliged them to go. He instituted 
the order of St. Andrew, the apostle of Russia. He 
signed with his own hand, which his predecessors 
had rarely done, all despatches, manifestoes, and 
treaties with Christian powers.* 

Peter had soon seen the folly and inconvenience 
of preserving a calendar different from that of all 
other European nations. The Russians began their 
year on the first of September. Peter gave out an 
order that an alteration should be made, and that the 
year 1700 should commence, as among all other 
Christian nations, on the first of January, which day 
was to be celebrated b}^ a general jubilee, and other 
great solemnities. This innovation, in the minds 
of the refractory priests, was even worse than anti- 
christ ; for, according to them, as God created the 
world in the month of September, he meant that 
the creation of it should be dated from that period. 
The great bulk of the people v/ere puzzled to find 
out how the Tzar would be able to change the course 
of the sun. It required some time to reconcile the 
Russians to the change, and many of them contin- 
ued to observe the old era ; but when all the public 
offices, the courts of justice, and the army and navy 
had adopted the new style, it very soon became 
generaL 

* Journal de Pierre le Grand 



108 MEMOIR OF 

It had been the custom for ladies not to asso- 
ciate with the other sex at feasts or entertain- 
ments, or, if admitted into the same apartment, 
they had always a separate table. When a young 
girl was about to be married, she was not al- 
lowed to see her betrothed till the day of the cere- 
mony ; and, among the nobility, when one of their 
sons was to take a wife, the usual practice was, as 
already mentioned in the case of the Tzar Alexis, to 
assemble all the young ladies of rank in some large 
room ; and the young gentleman who was in search 
of a wife, after examining the group, pitched upon the 
lady that struck his fancy most, and she became his 
bride. Peter not only abolished this absurd oriental 
custom, but, by inviting both sexes, whether married 
or unmarried, to his assemblies, the fashion of mix- 
ing together at their own houses became general ; 
and he thus rescued the female part of the nation 
from a state of abasement little short of absolute 
slavery. 

Peter had not been unmindful, when he instituted 
the order of St. Andrew, of the good effect produced 
by the distribution of honours and orders for merito- 
rious services, in the armies of the sovereigns of 
Europe, whose courts he had visited; and that these 
decorations gave a brilliancy which was wanting in 
his own ; and as these marks of distinction cost no- 
thing to the country, and flattered the vanity of those 
who obtained them, while they added nothing to 
their influence, he not only instituted the order above 
mentioned, but appointed his favourite, Golownin, 
whom he had raised to the dignity of admiral, as the 
first knight of that order, thereby marking his pre- 
dilection for the naval service. 

As the example which Peter had himself set 
could not well be refused by his subjects, he had less 
difficulty, in the formation of his new troops, in 
obliging the sons of the boyars and the kneezes (or 
princes) to serve in the capacity of common soldiers, 



\ 



PETER THE GnEAt. 109 

before they could hold commissions as officers. 
Other young men, on the same principle, were sent 
to serve in his fleet at Voronitz, on the Don, and be- 
fore Asoph, as common sailors, from which situa- 
tion they were to rise to commands through the sev- 
eral gradations. He was particularly attentive to 
the building, repairing, and equipping a large fleet on 
the Don, in which he was assisted by the English 
officers that he had carried out with him, and those 
that had been sent from Holland. His grand scheme 
of joining the Don and the Volga, in which Brakel 
the German engineer had failed, was now resumed, 
tinder Captain Perry, who had also the direction of 
constructing basins, sluices, and careening-wharves 
for his squadron. 

The Tzar, having made his arrangements for giving 
official effect to these and some other innovations^ 
set off for Voronitz to inspect the naval works carry- 
ing on at that place, but had not been long absent 
When the intelligence of the sudden deatli of his 
tnuch-esteemed and valued friend Le Fort reached 
him. This unlooked-for event overwhelmed him 
Xvith deep distress. It was, in fact, the most severe 
loss that he could have sustained at this time, as it 
deprived him of that valuable assistance he had cal- 
culated upon, in bringing all his projects into suc^ 
cessful operation. This excellent man was snatched 
away by an untimely fate at the age of forty-six, in 
the month of March, 1699. His remains were hon- 
oured by a public funeral, which vied with the mag- 
nificence of the most splendid obsequies that sove- 
reigns are accustomed to receive. The Tzar hast-^ 
ened back to Moscow to assist in person in the fune- 
ral procession ; and as this extraordinary monarch 
never acted without a motive, he took his station 
behind all the captains, as a lieutenant, the rank he 
bore in General Le Fort's regiment ; in order that 
the nobility and his courti^irs might see, that on no 
occasion did he lose sight of that respect which was 
K 



110 MEMOIR OF 

due to merit and to military subordination. The 
remains were deposited in the Dutch Reformed 
church in Moscow, where a monument was erected 
to his memory, bearing a long inscription in the 
Latin and Dutch languages. Thus the name of Le 
Fort will go down to posterity, along with that of 
his master, as a benefactor to the whole Russian 
nation. 

It has been said that the extravagant proceedings 
of Peter, when on his travels in Holland and Eng- 
land, and his affected labouring as a common ship- 
wright, were the mere freaks of a wild and unsteady 
young man, and tended to no useful purpose. The 
following letter, written by Mr. Deane, a brother of 
Sir Anthony Deane, commissioner and surveyor of 
the navy, dated Moscow, in March, 1699, soon after 
the Tzar's return, will prove that such was by no 
means the case : — 

Moscow, March 8, 169^, O.S. 

" My Lord,— I have deferred writing, till I could 
be able to give your lordship a true account (from 
my own knowledge) of the Tzar (our master's) navy, 
which, being a new thing in the world as yet, I 
believe, is variously talked of in England, &c. First, 
at Voronize there are already in the water and rigged 
thirty-six, and to be launched in the spring twenty 
more stout ships, from thirty to sixty guns. Next, 
eighteen very large galleys (built after the Venetian 
manner by Italian masters) are already completed ; 
and one hundred smaller galleys or brigantines are 
equipped for the sea : seven bomb-ships are launched 
and rigged, and four fire-ships are building against 
the spring, when they are all to go down to Azoph. 
The ships are chiefly built by the Dutch and Danes. 

" At my arrival in Moscoio, I fell very ill of the 
bloody-flux, which made me be in Moscow when his 
majesty came home : about thelatter end of October 
I was somewhat recovered ; his majesty then carried 



PETER THE GREAT. Ill 

me down to Vo7'onize with him. Voronize is about 
400 English miles south-east from Moscow. There 
the Tzar immediately set up a ship of sixty guns, 
where he is both foreman and master-builder ; and, 
not to flatter him, Fll assure your lordship it will be 
the best ship among them, and it is all from his own 
draught : how he framed her together, and how he 
made the mould, and in so short a time as he did, is 
really wonderful. But he is able, at this day, to put 
his own notions into practice, and laugh at his Dutch 
and Italian builders for their ignorance. There are 
several pieces of workmanship, as in the keel, stern, 
and post, which are purely his own invention, and 
sound good work, and would be approved of by all 
the shipwrights of England, if they saw it. She has 
a round tuck, and a narrow floor, a good tumbling- 
home, and circular side : none are to exceed eleven 
Dutch feet draught of water. He has not run into 
any extreme, but taken the mediums of all good 
sailing properties which seem best. One may, 
methinks, call her an abstract of his own private 
observations while abroad, strengthened by your 
lordship's improving discourses to him on that sub- 
ject, and his own extraordinary notion of sailing. 
One thing as to her keel is, that should it wholly be 
beat out, yet it is so ordered that the ship will be 
tight and safe, and may continue so at sea after- 
ward.* 

" I likewise made a suit of moulds for a ship of 
sixty guns, but after some time fell sick again : and 
at Christmas^ when his majesty came to Moscow^ he 
brought me back again for recovery of my health, 
wliere I am at present ; notwithstanding both our 
ships go forward, having put things in such a pos- 
ture, as that a Grecian (who has been in England) 

* Tliis alludes to her bottom being one solid mass — a mode of 
buildinp^ practised in Holland centuries ago, and on the west 
coast of India centuries before that, but which is a recent in-- 
vention in England. 



112 MEMOIR OP 

Games on the business. Mr. Ney"^ is building a 
sixty-gun ship there too ; besides, there are four of 
that size (near built) upon the Don, two of forty- 
guns already at Azoph, carried down some time 
since, and a great many galleys, &c. 

" The river Vorona, at Voronize, when I was there, 
was hardly so broad as the ships are long : but in the 
spring, about the latter end of Ap^il, or beginning of 
May J when the snow melts, there is sixteen feet 
water in that little river, which continues this height 
about twelve or fourteen days, with a rapid torrent, 
with that force, that though it be 1000 miles down 
to Azoph, yet the ships will easily be there in nine 
or ten days. 

*' His majesty was at my chamber two days of last 
week, v/ith Mr. Styles, as interpreter (who gives his 
humble duty to your lordship). You may guess 
what his majesty came to be informed in, while he 
was there. I showed him a model of a machine to 
bring up the Royal Transport to the Volga, at seven- 
teen inches draught of water ; he was pleased to 
like it, but gave no orders for putting it in execution, 
so, 1 believe, she will lie where she is now, and 
perish. Here are three envoys, viz. the Emperor's, 
the Banes\ and Brandenburg^ s, in this Slahodo (as it 
is called), w^hich lies from Moscow as Lambeth does 
from London. The whole place is inhabited by the 
Dutch ; I believe there may be four hundred families. 
Last Sunday and Monday the strangers were invited 
to the consecration of General Le ForCs new house, 
which is the noblest building in Russia, and finely 
furnished. There were all the envoys, and, as near 
as 1 could guess, two hundred gentlemen, English, 
French, and Dutch, and about as many ladies ; each 
day were dancing and music. — All the envoys and 
all the lords (but three, in Moscow) are going to 
Voronize, to see the fleet, I suppose. 

f 4-noth(?r English shipwright, •' 



PETER THE GREAT. 113 

"His majesty went, last Sunday, to Voronizc, 
with Prince Alexander, and I am to go down (being 
somewhat recovered) with the vice-admiral, about 
six days hence. This day was a muster of all the 
seamen and officers of his majesty's service, three- 
fourths of which are discharged. They are to go 
home by the way of Narva. Captain Perry, who 
was sent to make a communication between the 
rivers Volga and Don, near Astracan, is returned 
from surveying the same ; he makes it appear feasi- 
ble enough to be done ; accordingly his majesty has 
ordered forty thousand men to be raised, and mate- 
rials provided for doing the same ; which he has 
promised to finish in five years, though I believe it 
may be done in less. When that is performed, then 
the Tzar may carry his ships from the Black Sea into 
the Caspian Sea, and extend his conquest that way. 

" My lord, what I have writ, I wish it may be 
any satisfction to your lordship, and I have my end, 
who am, &c. John Deane. 

" Postscript. — Since my writing this, General Le 
Fort is dead of a high fever; and we expect his 
majesty up this night from Voronitz."* 

This letter affords abundant proof how much this 
extraordinary young monarch had profited by his 
travels. Indeed there is no parallel, in ancient or 
modern history, of a powerful and absolute sove- 
reign, in the undisputed possession of the throne of 
a most extensive empire, ruling with unlimited 
sway, uncontrolled by any other authority — of a 
prince, in the full vigour of life, with the most am- 
ple means of indulging in the gratification of every 
luxury and pleasure that fancy, or caprice, or pas- 
sion could suggest — of a youth of five-and-twenty, 

* A letter from Moscow to the Marquis of Caermarthcn, 
relating to the Tzar of Muscovy's forwardness in his great 
navy, &;c. since his return home. By John Deane. This gen- 
tleman dfed at Moscow the same year. 
K2 



J 14 MEMOIR OF 

relinquishing all the enjoyments and all the fascina* 
tions that are supposed to court the high and palmy 
state of a throne, abandoning them all — and for 
what 1 — to travel in foreign countries, as an obscure 
individual, for the sake of acquiring personal and 
practical information and instruction; sacrificing 
every luxury and every pomp v^hich wealth and re- 
gal power could command, and submitting himself 
to undergo the daily drudgery, the mean clothing, 
and frugal diet of a common working shipwright. 

The Tzar, having performed the last obsequies to 
his friend, returned to his favourite dock-yard, at 
Voronitz, v/here a vast number of foreigners, of all 
descriptions, had been collected, consisting gene^ 
rally of English, Dutch, German, and Italian arti- 
ficers, Peter mixed with these without ceremony, 
dressed generally like the workmen, in a round hat, 
jacket, and trousers, paying great attention to every 
thing that was going on, conversing freely with the 
Dutch more especially, whose language he perfectly 
understood. If he happened to see some poor fellow 
struggling with his loaded wheelbarrow, he would 
put him aside, and seizing hold of the handles, trun- 
dle it away to the required spot. Sometimes he 
would take a spade and show the people how to use 
it to the best advantage. When an accident hap- 
pened to any of the workmen, he was always the 
first to afford them relief, to dress their wounds, and, 
if necessary, to bleed them, at which he was par* 
ticularly expert. 

While thus superintending the workmen, and 
bustling about the whole day, he was always placid 
and in good-humour, appearing quite a different per- 
son from the stern sovereign who had so recently 
dealt out those terrible punishments at Moscow, 
from the judgment-seat of which it would seem as 
if he fled hither to calm and relieve his exasperated 
feelings, Peter was, in truth, cruel from circum- 
gtBnces, and uot by nature ; a thousand little traits 



PETER THE GREAT. 115 

proved the kindness of his disposition, more par- 
ticularly to those who stood most in need of ex- 
periencing it. It was his custom frequently to visit, 
in their humble abodes, his subjects of the lower 
classes ; and he never refused to hold their little 
ones at the baptismal font ; a condescension for 
which he had perpetual calls from one class or 
another of his subjects. To the first-born of the 
officers and soldiers of his own regiment of guards 
he almost always was called upon to stand god- 
father; and contented himself with giving a kiss to 
the mother, and putting a ruble, and sometimes a 
ducat, under the pillow. The Empress Elizabeth 
told Stshlin that young Peter, son of the unfortunate 
Alexis, having one day mentioned to her that he had 
sent a hundred ducats to the wife of an officer of the 
guards, to whose child he had stood godfather, she 
told him that, if he acted so magnificently, he must 
be provided with a heavy purse. " My father,'' said 
the empress, *'who stood sponsor to as many as 
wished it, and who refused none, did not do so — a 
kiss to the mother, and a ducat under the pillow, 
were all, and the parents were well satisfied." 

On his return to, and short residence at, Moscow, 
he mixed more familiarly than before with the re- 
spectable part of the inhabitants, and made frequent 
visits to the foreign ministers and foreign merchants 
settled there. These visits, hideed. were not always 
quite convenient to those v/ho received them, as he 
was sometimes accompanied by a train of fifty or 
sixty persons. The Dutch envoy requested "^ the 
States-General to make him an allowance, to meet 
the extraordinary expense. The visits of sovereigns, 
however flattering to the vanity of those individuals 
whom they are pleased to honour, are frequently 
attended with so much inconvenience, that they 
should be " hke angel visits, short and far between." 
We have a specimen in that honest Dutch travel- 
ler, Cornelius Le Bruya, of the familiar aiid easy 



116 MEMOIR OF 

manner in which Peter conversed with strangers. 
Le Bruyn happened to be present at one of those 
visits made by the Tzar at the house of a Dutch 
merchant of the name of Brandt, and this, the trav- 
eller conceived, gave him the privilege of making 
his profound respects to his majesty, the next time 
he came into his presence. Peter looked at him, 
and asked him, in Dutch, " Hoe wiet zy wie ik ben, 
en hoe komt zy my te kennenl" — How know you 
who I am, and how came you to know me 1 "I 
answered," says Le Bruyn, " that I had seen his 
portrait in London, and that it had made too strong 
an impression on my mind not to recollect it." 
This not appearing satisfactory to the Tzar, Le 
Bruyn added that he had seen his majesty at his 
friend Brandt's. He then overwhelmed him with a 
whole volley of those questions which would appear 
to form a kind of royal catechism for all nations. 
** He asked me of what city 1 was — who my parents 
were — if they were still living — if 1 had any brothers 
or sisters 1 He then inquired as to my former travels 
— in what year I had undertaken them — how long I 
had been about them — in what manner I made them, 
and how I returned from them — and a multitude of 
questions of this kind." 

Le Bruyn, one day after this, met the Tzar at the 
palace of Menzikoff, making experiments with some 
fire-engines. On seeing him, he desired he would 
go with him into the house, saying, " You have seen 
a great number of things, but I doubt whether you 
ever met with what I am going to show you ;" at the 
same time ordering a poor miserable object to be 
brought before him, and that his clothes should be 
taken off. Le Bruyn describes him as having an 
excrescence, just above the navel, about the length 
of a hand, and four inches thick, through which 
almost all the nourishment he took came out, in a 
half-digested state ; and adds that the poor man had 
been in this condition for nine years. The Tzar, he 



PETER THE GREAT. 117 

says, appeared to lake a great interest in the suffer- 
iligs of this unhappy Russian.* 

The immediate object of tlie fleet of gun-boats and 
other vessels which the Tzar was building and pre- 
paring on the Don was the protection of Asoph ; but 
the ultimate view was, no doubt, as already observed, 
to push his conquests to the shores of the Black Sea. 
Nor was the accomphshment of this great point, 
which might afford him the free navigation of that 
inland sea, sufficient to satisfy his ardent desire for 
the prosperity and improvement of his country. 
From the great ocean he would still be excluded ; 
and he was fully aware that the navigation of this 
alone could afford him a free communication with 
the maritime states of Europe. He had seen enough 
on his travels to convince him that unfettered com- 
merce was the great source of civilization and wealth. 
The forest of masts that niei, his eye everywhere on 
the Thames, the number of ships that crowded the 
ports and canals of Amsterdam and Rotterdam, could 
not fail to convince a person of his penetration, that 
Russia, to be great, must have some other port, con- 
nected with the great ocean, than the only one she 
then possessed, at the northern extremity of his do- 
minions, which was accessible for shipping only six 
months in the year, by a sea that w^as frozen up the 
other six, and at all times dangerous ; and removed 
to a great distance, too, both from the maritime na- 
tions of western Europe and from his own capital. 
But the barbarous people whom it was his destiny 
to enlighten were averse to any extension of com- 
mercial intercourse. What, indeed, could be hoped 
from a people so immersed in ignorance as to per- 
suade themselves that the foreign ships which came 
to Archangel for their corn and timber, their hemp, 
hides, and tallow, resorted thither as to a country 
which was the granary and storehouse of all Europe 1 

^ Voyage de Cornelius Le Bruyii. 



1 18 MEMOIR OF 

The Chinese say, that Heaven has conferred on the 
celestial empire a plant which it has refused to all 
olher nations of the earth; but that their heavenly 
emperor, in his great benevolence, has kindly per- 
mitted the Fan-guei, or barbarous brutes of other 
countries, to participate in the enjoyment of this 
precious blessing. Thus also the Russians, like the 
Chinese with their tea, were pleased to think it a 
great indulgence to let foreign traders take away 
the precious products of their soil, which nature had 
denied to other countries, and without which the 
natives of those countries would be in danger of 
perishing through cold and famine. 

It was no easy matter for the Tzar, all powerful 
as he was, to convince such barbarians that, to make 
them a great and flourishing people, they must have 
what another great captain so fiercely thirsted for, 
" ships, colonicw^, and commerce." These were the 
objects on which it was apparent he constantly kept 
his eye. The encouragement which he gave to 
learned men to traverse the untrodden regions of 
Siberia — the mission of Ysbrant Ides to China — the 
attempts to open a commerce with India by the Cas- 
pian Sea, through Bucharia — the expedition of Beh- 
ring to discover a north-east passage, with instruc- 
tions written with his own hand — all tended to one 
and the same object — that of making Russia a great 
commercial nation. 

Still, however, something was considered to be 
wanting to complete his views in this respect — and 
that was a free and uninterrupted communication 
with the great ocean — an object which, it appeared 
to him, could only be obtained by having the com- 
mand of the one or the other coast of that part of 
the Baltic called the Gulf of Finland ; and both of 
these had long been, and still were, in the possession 
of the Swedes, who had also the two banks of the 
Neva, up to the Lake of Ladoga. Thus he found 
himself hemmed in on every side, in the only quar- 



PETER THE GREAT. 119 

ter where his ardent wishes could be accomplished. 
He had seen Riga on his travels, and met there with 
a blunt refusal to be admitted into the citadel : he 
said little at the time, except that he should prob- 
ably meet with more civihty at his next visit, — for 
he hoped to see the day when he should have the 
honour to refuse the same piece of civility to the 
King of Sweden himself. Something more than is 
stated by authors must here have occurred ; for 
Peter, in his journal, asks Augustus King of Poland 
to avenge the insult which D'Alberg had offered him, 
" ou il put a peine sauver sa vie."* The fine posi- 
tion of Riga at the bottom of the Gulf of Livonia, 
opening into the Baltic, and the recollection of its 
having once belonged to Russia, were not lost to 
his penetrating mind. An opening now presented 
itself on which he was but too ready to seize ; it 
was that of a combined offensive alliance of three 
powers against Sweden, which promised a fair 
chance of putting him in possession of the grand 
object of his wishes ; and without such assistance, 
considering the recent formation of his army, he 
could not hope to obtain it single-handed against the 
old and well-disciplined troops of that nation. 

The greater part of Livonia and Esthonia had been 
ceded by Poland to Charles the Eleventh of Sweden. 
Augustus, the Elector of Saxony, having been called 
by choice to the throne of Poland, conceived the de- 
sign of recovering these provinces. Peter, at the 
same time, was meditating his grand scheme of na- 
tional improvement, and had resolved to begin by 
endeavouring to make himself master of Ingria and 
Carelia. The King of Denmark, who had suffered 
greatly from the Swedish arms, hastened to conclude 
a league with the Tzar and Ausrustus against the 
young King of Sweden, Charles XIL, who was now 
(1700) only eighteen years of age. The objects then 

» Journal de Pierre le Grand. 



120- MEMOIR O** 

of the war to be undertaken by these confederates 
were threefold — for Russia, the reunion of Ingria 
and Carelia — for Poland, the recovery of Livonia 
and Esthonia — and, for Denmark, the provinces of 
Holstein and Sleswick. The Tzar was the more 
ready to enter into this confederacy, as he had just 
succeeded in concluding a truce for twenty-five 
years with the Turks, and, therefore, Was not likely 
to have occasion to draw off his forces towards the 
southward. 

Sweden became alarmed at the report of the 
preparations that were making against her, and had 
little confidence in the young king, who had hitherto 
shown no inclination for public business^ nor evinced 
any ardour for military pursuits. It was therefore 
proposed in council, at which Charles sat, to aVert 
the storm by negotiation ; when the young princCj 
with great gravity and a resolute tone, said, " 1 am 
resolved never to enter upon an unjust war, nor to 
end a just one but by the destruction of my enemies. 
I will attack the first who shall declare against me, 
and when I have conquered him, I may hope to 
strike terror into the rest."* From that moment he 
renounced all his former habits and amusements. 
Eight thousand men were immediately marched into 
Pomerania, and he embarked himself with his prime 
minister, Count Piper, and General Renschild, in a 
ship of a hundred and twenty guns ; and, with a fleet 
of upwards of forty sail, offered battle to the Danish 
fleet, which was declined : he then steadily pursued 
his course, and prepared to lay siege to Copenhagen 
— but obtained 400,000 rix-dollars from the deputies 
who were sent to him to negotiate, as the condition 
for his abstaining from the bombardment of the city. 
In short, he compelled the King of Denmark, within 
six weeks', to sign a peace, which restored Holstein 

* Voltaire*s Hist, of Charles XIL |. 



PETER THE GREAT. 121 

to the duke, its lawful sovereign, and indemnified 
him for all the expenses of the war. 

The King of Poland was not more successful. 
He laid siege to Riga, the capital of Livonia, — 
and received notice that the Tzar was on the 
march with a hundred thousand men to join him. 
Count Fleming commanded the Polish forces, — but 
the experience of the old Count D'Alberg, the 
same who refused Peter leave to enter the citadel, 
rendered ail the efforts of the besiegers fruitless ; 
and the King of Poland, despairing of success, 
availed himself of a plausible pretext for raising the 
siege. Riga was at that time full of merchandise 
belonging to the Dutch. The States- General ordered 
their ambassador to the King Augustus to make 
proper representations to him on the subject. "' The 
King of Poland," says Voltaire, " did not stand in 
need of much entreaty. He consented to raise the 
siege rather than occasion the least mjury to his 
allies; who were not immoderately surprised at his 
excessive complaisance^ as they knew the real cause 
of it." Thus the young King of Sweden, relieved 
entirely from one of the confederates, and having 
defeated the object and dispersed the army of the 
second, was now left to prepare a i'prce to oppose 
the designs of the third ; whom, though by far the 
most powerful, confident in the discipline of his 
troops, he afiected to despise. 
L 



!22 MEMOIR OF 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Battle of Narva — Peter's Success against the Swedes- 
History of Catharine. 

If experience in the art of war and success in 
military operations are to be the test of an able 
general, Peter had as yet but slender claims to that 
title. He had behaved most gallantly at the siege 
of Asoph, and his efforts were crowned with tri- 
umph ; but, on engaging in a war with Sweden, he 
had a far other enemy to encounter than Turks or 
Tartars. Charles, it is true, was but a boy, as in- 
experienced as Peter could be in the art of war : 
but he had able generals and a well-disciplined army, 
which the other had not ; with the exception of a 
very small portion of either. Charles had, besides, 
an army frequently flushed with victory. The die, 
however, was cast, and Peter lost no time in invading 
Ingria with a force of 60,000 men, the march of 
whom was preceded by a manifesto, which did his 
cause no good; as the chief complaint he had to 
make therein against Sweden was, the indignity he 
conceived to have been put upon him at Riga, and 
the enormous prices which his ambassadors, who 
were then travelling with him, had been charged for 
provisions at that place. Such were the frivolous 
reasons which the Tzar avowed as determining him 
to plunge into what, nevertheless, he, no doubt, con- 
sidered a just and necessary war against the young 
King of Sweden. 

Peter's first hostile operation was to lay siege to 
Narva, a place of considerable strength on the river 
Narowa, which flowed through a part of his own 
dommions, out of the lake Peipus into the Baltic. 



PETER THE GREAT. 123 

The first division took up their ground before the 
place on the 20th September, and the siege continued 
to the 19th November, — on which day the Russians 
were attacked, and, after a short but furious conflict, 
were under the necessity of asking for a suspension 
of arms. 

On the preceding day, as appears from the Tzar's 
own journal, or history of his campaigns, Peter had 
left the army and gone to Novogorod, to hasten 
some regiments which were on their march to join 
the forces before Narva ; but this, it would appear, 
was not the only cause of his departure from the 
camp. It was necessary he should have an inter- 
view with the King of Poland, in consequence of 
his having raised the siege of Riga, in order that they 
might deliberate together concerning the common 
measures most expedient to be pursued. For this 
purpose he took with him the Marshal Count Go- 
lownin, minister of foreign affairs (not Menzikoff, as 
Voltaire says), leaving the command of the army 
with the Duke De Croi, a Flemish officer, and the 
commissary-general. Prince Dolgorouki. 

Charles lost no time in passing over about 9000 
men into Livonia ; he himself marched northward 
towards Revel, driving from the neighbourhood of 
that place an advanced body of Russians. On ap- 
proaching Narva, he found the Russian army in their 
intrenchments, lined with more than a hundred and 
forty pieces of cannon, and, as various writers have 
it, mustering from eighty to a hundred thousand 
men. Peter himself, however, does not make them 
amount to half that number; and General Gordon 
says that the whole of the Tzar's army did not ex- 
ceed 50,000 men, of whom 12,000 were at Novogo- 
rod.* Whatever the aggregate number of the Tzar's 
army might have been, it consisted chiefly of tha 
old Strelitzes and the corps of twelve thousand men 

* Gordon's Hist. Journal de Pierre le Grand. 



124 MEMOIR OF 

that were regularly disciplined under Le Fort ; Iho 
rest were raw recruits and serfs, dravvn from the 
woods and wilds, clothed in skins, and armed with 
clubs and pikes, who knew not the use of firerirms, 
and had never seen either battle or siege.* General 
Gordon (who was in the battle) says, " Being all 
new- raised troops, except the regiment of guards, 
which was of a piece with the rest, in having never 
been engaged before with disciplined troops, and few 
good officers as yet among them, it was no miracle 
to see an army of inexperienced raw troops, con- 
sisting of about thirty-four thousand men, intrenched, 
beat by a body of about nine thousand veterans, as 
good troops and as well commanded as any in Eu- 
rope, with so resolute a prince at their head."f 

General Gordon considers the intrenched position 
of the Russians as having been the source of a fatal 
security and neglect. Charles, nothing dismayed 
by these superior numbers, having driven in all the 
Russian outposts, and availing himself of a violent 
storm of wind and snow, which blew directly in the 
face of the enemy, attacked their intrenchments with 
his few pieces of cannon ; and, falling upon the 
Russians before they had time to recover them- 
selves, a panic seized them, which diffused itself 
throughout the whole army. Every man quitted his 
post, and the Swedes had nothing more to do than 
to kill and destroy amass of men who impeded each 
other in their endeavours to escape, — ;iust as a hand- 
ful of l^nglish troops, in storming a Burmese stock- 
ade, crowded with the enemy's troops, hacked and 
slew the undisciplined rabble that blocked up the 
only passage by which they attempted to escape. 
Many of the Russian fugitives threw themselves into 
the river, and were drowned ; others flung away 
their arms and begged, on their knees, for quarter. 
The Duke De Croi, General Allard, and almost all 

* John Moltley. f Gordon's Hist, of Peter the Great. 



PETER THE GREAT. 125 

the German officers in the service, more afraid of 
their own mutinous Russians than of the Swedes^ 
surrendered themselves at once to Count Steinbok. 
All their artillery fell into the hands of the King of 
Sweden. The Tzar, in his journal, says it was sur- 
rendered by convention, in which it was stipulated 
that six regimental pieces were to be kept — but that 
the Swedes broke faith, and did not restore these. 
He says, also, that it was agreed the troops were to 
retire with their arms and colours, which was al- 
lowed to the division of General Golownin, — but 
that, when the division of General Weyde marched 
off, the Swedes not only began to take from them 
their muskets and colours, but stripped them of their 
clothes. The officers, sent as prisoners to Stock- 
holm were, one field-marshal, and six generals, 
eight colonels, four lieutenant-colonels, six majors, 
fourteen captains, besides subalterns ; and two gene- 
rals and four field-officers of the Saxon auxiliaries. 
Peter estimates the number of his men killed to 
amount from 5800 to 6000, and that of the Swedes, 
by report, to 3000, — and states that the number of 
his troops that returned to Novogorod was 22,967. 

" Thus," says the Tzar, " it is indisputable that the 
Swedes obtained a victory over our troops, which 
as yet were but an ill-disciplined militia ; for in this 
action there was no other old regiment than that 
which is called Lefortowsky, and two regiments of 
guards, who had only been at the two sieges of 
Asoph, who had never seen an action in the open 
field, and still less with regular troops. It is not 
surprising, therefore, that old, exercise.-l, and expe- 
rienced troops should have had the advantage over 
such as ours. It is true, notwithstanding, that this 
victory caused us a sensible mortification, and made 
us despair of more favourable success in future ; it 
was even regarded as a mark of the extreme wrath 
of God ; but, in diving into the views of Heaven, one 
sees that they were rather favourable than other- 
L2 



120 MEMOm OP 

%vise to tss ; for if we had then obtamed a victory 
over the Swedes, being", as we were, so little in- 
structed in the art of war and of policy, into what an 
abyss might not this good fortune have sunk us ! 
On the contrary, this success of the Swedes cost 
them very d«ar afterward at Pultava, although they 
possessed so much skill and reputation that the 
French called them the scourge of the Germans. 
We, after tjiis disastrous check, — which has been a 
real g-ood fortune for us, — have been obliged to re- 
double our activity, and to make the utmost efforts 
to supply, by our circumspection, the want of expe- 
rience ; and it is thus that the war has been con- 
tinued, as we shall see in the course of this his- 
tory."* 

With such feelings it is the less surprising that he 
bore his ill success with calmness and resignation : 
so far was he from being dispirited when first told 
of the decisive victory gained by the Swedes, that 
he showed a philosophic firmness which the intre- 
pidity and valour of Charles XII. himself could not 
have surpassed. " I know very well," said he, *' that 
the Swedes will have the advantage of us for a con- 
siderable time ; but they will teach us at length to 
beat them." His first object was to prevent Charles 
from following up the blow ; and for this purpose he 
despatched forthwith the troops which had rendez- 
voused at Novogorod to Plt^scow, situated on the 
lake Peipus, by wny of securing that frontier against 
any attempt that the enemy might make to invade 
the country. He then repaired to Moscow with his 
two regime»:ts of guards, and issued immediate orders 
that a certain proportion of the bells of the churches 
and convents of all the cities in the empire should 
be forthwith cast into cannon and mortars. This 
was effected in the course of the winter accordingly, 
and one hundred pieces of cannon for sieges, and 

* Journal de Pierre le Grand. 



PETER THE GREAT. 127 

one hundred and forty-two field-pieces, with twelve 
mortars and thirteen howitzers, were ready to ba 
sent off to Novogorod in the spring of 1701.* He 
also caused six infantry regiments, of one thousand 
men each, to be raised, and several regiments of 
dragoons, which were to be trained and disciplined 
with as little delay as possible. 

Notwithstanding the inveteracy of the clergy 
against the innovations of Peter, which they consid- 
ered the cause of his defeat, and as a judgment of 
God, one bishop was found who undertook to com- 
pose a prayer, addressed, not to the Deity, but to 
St. Nicholas, the patron of Muscovy, which was 
read in all the churches. In this prayer the bishop 
accuses the saint of having abandoned the Russians 
to the furious and terrible Swedes, who were de- 
nounced as infidels and sorcerers. This singular 
document is too illustrative of the ignorance and 
•superstition of the Muscovites to be omitted. It is 
as follows : — 

^' thou who art our perpetual com.forter, in all 
our adversities, great St. Nicholas f infinitely pow- 
erful, by what sin have we offended thee, in our sac- 
rifices, genuflexions, reverence, and thanksgivings, 
that thou liast thus forsaken us ? We have im- 
plored thy assistance against these terrible, insolent, 
enraged, dreadful, insuperable destroyers, when, 
like lions and bears, and other savage beasts, which 
have lost their youno:, they have attacked us, terri- 
fied, wounded, slain by thousands, us, who are thy 
people. But, as it is impossible this could have hap- 
pened without witchcraft and enchantment, seeing 
the gr^at care that we had taken to fortify ourselves 
in an inaccessible n^anner, for the defence and se- 
curity of thy name; we beseech thee, great 
Nicholasi to be our champion and standard-bearer, 
to be with ais, as well in peace as in war, in all cur 

* Joarnal de Pierre le Grand. 



13S MEMOIR OF 

necessities, and in the time of our death ; to pro- 
tect us against this terrible and tyrannical crowd of 
sorcerers, and drive them far from our frontiers, 
with the reward which they deserve."* 

The Tzar, however disregarding both St. Nicho- 
las and the priests, pursued steadily the course he 
had marked out. He had an interview with King 
Augustus at Birzen, on the frontier of Courland, for 
the purpose of confa-ming that prince in his resolu- 
tion of maintaining the war against Charles XII. and 
to prevail on the Polish diet to engage in the quar- 
rel. However disposed Augustus might be to con- 
tinue the war, he could not be unmindful that the 
King <3f Poland w^as but the head of the republic, 
and that it was necessary he .should treat with his 
subjects. The Poles were in no haste to enter into 
the quarrel; the}^ dreaded any infringement on their 
liberties by the armies of the Saxons and the Rus- 
sians being quartered in their country ; and they 
dreaded still more the displeasure of Charles. The 
majority of the diet determined, therefore, not to 
support the views of Augustus, in whom Peter now 
diseovered he had but a weak ally, and that he had 
to depend solely on his own resources. General 
Patkul, of whom more will be said hereafter, had 
been the life and soul of the conferences at Birzen, 
and he exerted all his zeal in procuring German offi- 
cers, and in disciplining the raw recruits ; he was, 
in fact, another Le Fort. He took care that all who 
entered the service, whether officers or men, should 
be well provided with arms, clothes, and subsist- 
ence. 

The Tzar next proceeded to the lake Peipus, on 
which, in the course of the year 1701, he had caused 
to be got ready, and fully equipped, a fleet of one 
hundred and fifty galleys, each manned with fifty 
iBen. He inspected in his own person, the building, 

* Nestesuranoi. Voltaire, &c. 



PETER THE GREAT. 129 

equipping, and manning of this flotilla, destined to 
prevent the Swedisli ve.ssels on this side of the lake 
from harassing the province of Novogorod. In like 
manner, he ordered np the seamen from the Don, to 
man his rising fleet, on the lake Ladoga. In the 
midst of all these preparations, he made frequent 
excursions to Moscow, to see that the progress of im- 
provements and his new regulations were not neg- 
lected or infringed. " Princes," says Voltaire, 
" who have employed their peaceful days in public 
foundations, are mentioned in history with honour; 
but that Peter, just after the unfortunate battle of 
Narva, should undertake the junction of the Baltic, 
Caspian, and Euxine seas, is what crowns him with 
more real glory than he could ever have derived from 
the most signal victory."* 

It has always been a subject of surprise that, after 
the victory of Narva, when Charles might have car* 
ried every thing before him in Russia, he should 
have directed his sole attention to Poland, treating 
the former as if unworthy of his notice ; while Peter 
was left at fall liberty, not only to recruit and disci- 
pline a new army, but also to design and carry into 
execution many great and important improvements : 
such as introducing from Saxony flocks of sheep, and 
shepherds to attend them, for the sake of their wool ; 
erecting linen and paper manufactories ; building 
hospitals ; inviting from abroad braziers, blacksmiths, 
armourers, and other artisans of every description ; 
and, in fact, cultivating, in the midst of war, all the 
arts of peace. But for pursuits of this kind Charles 
XII. himself had no taste ; he appeared not to be- 
stow a thought either on the welfare of his own 
country, or on the proceedings of Peter, whom he 
left unmolested and quite at his ease during the 
whole year 1702 ; having made up his mind not to 
quit Poland until he had driven from the throne the 

* History of the Russian Empire, &c. 



130 MEMOIR OF 

newly-elected sovereign and ally of the Tzar, Au- 
gustus, the Elector of Saxony. 

The Russian army was, in the mean time, far from 
being idle ; on the contrary, it was gaining experi- 
ence and confidence by the frequent skirmishes the 
several detachments had with the Swedes, particu- 
larly in Ingria and Livonia. Peter himself was 
moving about in all directions ; one week he was at 
Plescow, the next he made his appearance at Mos- 
cow, and the third at Archangel, to which place he 
had proceeded on a report that the Swedes were 
intending to destroy the small establishment which 
was kept up at that port. On coming thither, he 
drew the plan of a new fortress, for its better secu- 
rity, to which he gave the name of the New Dwina, 
and of which he himself laid the first stone. His 
General Scherematof succeeded in capturing what 
is called a Swedish frigate, on the lake Feipus. He 
was also successful against the Swedes in the neigh- 
bourhood of Dorpt, or Dorpat, on the frontiers of 
Livonia, in an action with the Major-general Schlip- 
penbach in which the Russians took a great number 
of prisoners, and some colours. On the 1st of Janu- 
ary, 1702, this officer fell in with the main body of 
the enemy, near a village named Eresfort. " As our 
troops," says the Tzar, '* were new, and but little 
exercised, and our artillery had not arrived, the 
enemy threw a great part of our men into confusion, 
and obliged them to fall back; but on being joined 
by our artillery, their retreat was stopped; our 
men being again formed in order of battle, attacked 
with so much vigour that, after an action of four 
hours, the Swedes were compelled to yield, to aban- 
don their artillery, and to fly. The enemy lost in 
this action the greater part of his troops, as three 
thousand lay dead on the field of battle. Of our 
men about one thousand were killed."* 

* Journal de Pierre le Grand. 



PETER THE GREAT. 131 

In consequence of this important success, Gen- 
eral Scherematof was made field-marshal, and re- 
ceived the order of St. Andrew, which was carried 
to him by Menzikoff. Thanks were publicly re- 
turned to God for this victory, and salutes, and lire- 
works, and other rejoicings took place. It was on 
this occasion that Peter observed, " Well, we have 
at last beaten the Swedes, when we were two to one 
against them; we shall, by-and-by, be able to face 
them man to man." 

On the 17th of July, the marshal was again engaged 
with the enemy, near the village of Humolowa, 
where he attacked them in front and in flank, '' and," 
says the Tzar, " with the assistance of God, we 
compelled them to fly from the field of battle ; 
having not only retaken the artillery, the colours, and 
the equipage, which they had taken from us, but 
also killed so many of them that the few remains 
of the cavalry were obliged to fly towards the city 
of Pernow. The marshal having left behind the 
infantry, pursued them with the regiments af dra- 
goons ; he overtook them a few miles from the city^ 
and routed them afresh. On this occasion we took 
fifteen pieces of cannon, and sixteen colours, and a 
great number of prisoners. Our loss was ten offi- 
cers, and about four hundred soldiers killed."* 

After this second decisive action, Marshal Schere- 
matof continued his march, driving from their posts 
the small parties of Swedes, and laying the whole 
country under contribution, till he arrived before 
Marienburgh, on the confines of Livonia and Ingria. 
This small town is situated on a lake, which it was 
necessary to cross on floating bridges, to enable the 
besiegers to take it by assault ; but the enemy agreed 
to capitulate, on condition of letting the inhabitants 
leave the place, which was granted ; and the major 
commanding, with two captains, came to the camp 

* Journal de Pierre le Grand. 



13? MEMOIR OF 

to give up the place, according to capitulation. In 
the mean time, a Captain Woolf, and an ensign of 
artillery, the latter dragging his wife by force, en* 
tered the powder magazine and set fire to it, by 
which numbers, both of Russians and Swedes, were 
blown into the air. In consequence of this, the 
whole of the inhabitants, being very few, were made 
prisoners, and the town was utterly destroyed. 

Among the prisoners that were thus taken cap- 
.tive was one so intimately connected with the 
future fortunes of the Tzar — one to whom he was 
so much indebted for his health and peace of niind, 
and, probably, for his life and throne, as to have en-* 
titled her to that esteem and gratitude which he 
owned, and never ceased to feel, to the end of his 
life. The officer before whom the prisoners of war 
were to file off was General Bauer, a man of great 
mildness and humanity, who had risen from the 
ranks to his present station. He observed among 
the prisoners who passed before him a very young 
girl, with tears streaming down her cheeks, and 
apparently in the greatest distress. There was 
something in her countenance and manner which 
made so strong an impression upon him as to cre- 
ate a desire to know her history ; and, with this 
view, he ordered her to be taken care of till he had 
time to question her. Her modest deportment, her 
great diffidence, and her whole demeanour pleased 
him. He assured her she had nothing to fear, as 
he would take care she should be well treated. He? 
story was simply this :— She was born at Ringen, 
a small village on the banks of a lake near Dorpt, 
in Livonia. Her mother had been a poor woman, 
isupported chiefly by Count Rosen, an officer in the 
Swedish service, the owner of the village; but 
she had lost her mother when she was three yearg 
old, and the count having died about the same time, 
she could give no further account of what happened, 
except that she was taken intp the house of the 



PETER THE GREAT. 133 

clerk of the village. This parish clerk kept a 
school, and intended to instruct her with the rest 
of the children ; but Doctor Gluck, the Lutheran 
minister of Marienburgh, happening one day to 
come to the village, and observing the child, took a 
great fancy to her, and on learning her history, 
asked the clerk, who was but a poor man, if he had 
any objection to part with her. In short, he took 
her home with him, and treated her like one of his 
own young family. Here she made herself useful, 
and soon became a great favourite. She employed 
herself in the usual kind of work required in a 
family. At first she knew no other language than 
Livonian, which is a dialect of the Sclavonian, but 
at M. Gluck's she learned the German, of which she 
very soon became a perfect mistress. 

As Martha, for so it appears Catharine was then 
called, advanced in years, her beauty attracted 
many admirers ; and one in particular, a Livonian 
sergeant in the Swedish army, fell passionately in 
love with her; but, though the attachment was 
mutual, she refused to marry him unless he obtained 
the consent of M. Gluck. This worthy man, whose 
circumstances were but moderate, thought he 
could not do better, either for the young woman or 
for himself, than to agree to the sergeant's propo- 
sal, more especially as his family was known to be 
respectable, as he had a small property of his own, 
and was in a fair way towards preferment, being a 
sober and steady man, and a favourite in his regi- 
ment. The marriage was performed by M. Gluck, 
and the following day Marienburgh surrendered, as 
we have seen, to the Russians. It was when in 
extreme grief for the loss of her husband, who, as 
he was never heard of afterward, must be sup- 
posed to have perished on that day, that General 
Bauer saw her : he was moved with compassion, 
and at the same time, no doubt, with a stronger 
feeling; and, smitten with her beauty, took hej* 
M 



134 MEMOIR OF 

to his house, where he appointed her to super- 
intend his domestic affairs ; and in a Httle time 
it was supposed, though the general seems never to 
have admitted it, that she became his mistress. 
This, however, is by no means improbable. Bauer 
was an unmarried man, and there are trials and 
situations which the most exalted virtue may find it 
difficult to resist. Be that as it may, M. Wurmb, 
who was tutor in M. Gluck's family, assured M. 
Weber, the Hanoverian minister at Petersburg, 
that during her residence at Marienburgh she was 
a pattern of virtue and good conduct ; and while 
with the general, she was greatly beloved by all his 
domestics, over whom she was placed. 

One day Menzikoff happened to call at the 
general's house, and seeing Martha, was struck 
with her beauty and manner, and, having learned 
her history, asked the general if he would part 
with her, as he was very much in want of such a 

f)erson to superintend the female part of his estab- 
ishment. The general would willingly have re- 
fused ; but as he was indebted for his rise in some 
manner to the prince, and owed him, on that account, 
a debt of gratitude, he called the young woman be- 
fore them, and asked her if she had any objection to 
enter the service of Prince Menzikoff, who would 
have it in his power to be of more use to her than he 
could possibly be, adding that he had too much re- 
gard for her future welfare to stand in the way of 
what was likely to lead to her advantage. Martha 
made a profound courtesy, and retired without 
speaking a word, and the next day saw her in the 
palace of Menzikoff. There can be little doubt in 
what capacity she lived with this splendid libertine,* 
with whom she continued till the year 1704, when 

* Gordon, who is not, however, good authority on this point, 
being then a prisoner at Stockholm, says that Menzikoff took 
her home and presented her to his princess. He also mistakes 
Scherematof for Bauer, and Marienburgh for Dorpt. 



PETER THE GREAT. 135 

in the seventeenth year of her age, she became the 
mistress of Peter, and won so much upon his affec- 
tions, that he first privately, and afterward publicly, 
married her. 

Such was the rise of this extraordinary woman, 
who, after the death of Peter, succeeded to the 
throne of Russia. " There have been instances," 
says Voltaire, " before this, of private persons 
being raised to the throne ; nothing was more com- 
mon in Russia, and in all the Asiatic kingdoms, 
than marriages between sovereigns and their sub- 
jects ; but that a poor stranger, who had been dis- 
covered amid the ruins of a plundered town, should 
become the absolute sovereign of that very empire 
into which she was led captive, is an incident 
which fortune and merit have never before pro- 
duced in the annals of the world." 

The arms of the Tzar, in the course of this cam- 
paign of 1702, were equally successful in Ingria as 
in Livonia. His galleys on the lake Ladoga drove 
those of the Swedes to take shelter on the opposite 
side of the lake. From the lower extremity of this 
fine sheet of water issues the river Neva, whose 
branches, now flowing through the noble city of 
Petersburg, which then had no existence, reunite 
and are discharged into the Baltic. The importance 
of such a communication could not pass unobserved 
by the Tzar. Near the exit of this river, on an 
island of the lake, was situated the strong fortified 
town of Rotteburgh, which Peter was determined 
to wrest, if possible, from the Swedes ; and for 
this purpose the siege of it was ordered to be under- 
taken by the Field-marshal Scherematof. Peter 
himself, as captain of the Preobazinki's guards, with 
the priuces Repnin, Galitzin, and Menzikoff, the 
last then only a lieutenant, was present at the siege, 
which lasted from the 18th September to the 12th 
October, when three several breaches being made, 
the place was carried by assault. A prodigious 



13ft MEMOIR OP 

quantity of stores and ammunition fell into the 
liands of the Russians. " The same day," says the* 
Tzar, "the marshal and the generals went into the 
town, after returning thanks to God ; and havimg 
fired three volleys of cannon and musketry, they 
changed the name of the fortress, and gave it that 
of Schliisselbourg:"* *' because," he adds, '^ it is 
by this key that the gates of the enemy's country 
are opened to us, and this name, by the grace of 
God, is effectually secured to it." 

Honours, and promotions, and rewards v/ere 
largely distributed. Menzikoff, lieutenant of bom- 
bardiers, was appointed governor of Schlusselbourg. 
Prince Galitzin, lieutenant-colonel of the guards, 
was promoted to the rank of colonel ; the rest of 
the officers were gratified in one way or another, 
mostly with gold medals ; and rewards were also 
distributed to all the common soldiers ; but Peter 
himself took no promotion, though he had been 
captain of a storming party, and actually mounted 
one of the breaches. On the 6th December he 
made his triumphal entry into Moscow, and the 
prisoners, their colours, their cannon, and tw^enty 
wagon-loads of ammunition and stores, taken from 
the enemy, were marched in the procession, pass- 
ing through three triumphal arches. His majesty, 
on entering the city, was harangued by the clergy 
and the chief authorities, and greeted with the dis- 
charge of artillery and the ringing of bells ; and 
the day was celebrated with every demonstration 
of joy. The Tzar himself was known to have no 
taste for these kind of exhibitions, but he thought 
them necessary, not only to inspire his new troops 
with a nobie emulation, but also to give confidence 
by his successes to his subjects, — a large portion of 
whom, judging from former reverses, were averse 
to the war in which he had involved the country. 

* i e, Key-towiL 



PETER THE GREAT. 137 

In the course of this year the Patriarch Adrian 
<3ied ; and as these dignitaries of the church had, at 
all times, not only interfered with the temporal 
concerns of the Tzars, but assumed a superior and 
independent authority, and even arrogated to them- 
selves the power of life and death, Peter determined 
to abolish the office altogether, letting it to be under- 
stood that he was to be considered as the head of 
the church ; having profited, perhaps, by the lessons 
he received from Bishop Burnet. At the same time 
he appointed the metropolitan of Rezan to take 
upon himself the chief administration of ecclesias- 
tical affairs, until a regular synod should be estab- 
lished, which, however, did not take place till the 
year 1721. At that synod, when Peter was pre- 
siding, a petition was read from some of the supe- 
rior clergy, which contained the names of several 
members of the synod, praying him to appoint a 
patriarch. The secretary having finished the read- 
ing, Peter rose up, struck his breast with great vio- 
lence, and called out vehemently, " Here is your 
patriarch," and immediately left the meeting. The 
Tzar's private secretary, who was present, told 
Staehlin that Peter smote his breast with one hand, 
and drew his hanger with the other, and striking 
the table with the flat of it, called out, " Here is 
your patriarch^"* 

It was not consistent with the character of Peter 
to pay that homage to any one which, in his estima- 
tion, was due only to God and St. Nicholas ; to sub- 
mit to walk on foot, in a procession, leading by the 
bridle the horse or the ass on which an insolent and 
arrogant priest was seated ; or to suffer any indi- 
vidual, except himself, to pronounce sentence of 
death, or inflict the punishment of the rack or the 
wheel, as was done, and without appeal, by the 

♦ StaBhIin : authority Great •chancellor Bestouchef and 
Secretary Tcherkassof. 

M 3 



138 MEMOIR OF 

ecclesiastical tribunal. The monks and the priests 
were of course dissatisfied with the loss of the 
patriarch. They libelled the Tzar, and ridiculed his 
innovations through the very press which he had 
himself been the means of introducing. One priest 
declared him to be antichrist, as no evil being of less 
power could have dared to abolish the holy office ; 
but another contended that the Tzar could not be 
antichrist, because the number 666 was not in his 
name, neither had he the sign of the beast. Peter, 
as it v/ould appear, paid very little attention to these 
idle disputes; though Voltaire, in his history of 
Charles the Twelfth, says, " the author of the libel 
was racked on the wheel, and the respondent made 
bishop of Rezan." 

Abating the displeasure which the clergy felt at 
the abolition of the office of patriarch, the Tzar 
omitted nothing, during his short stay at Moscow, 
that he conceived might afford amusement to the 
people, and keep them in good-humour; rightly judg- 
ing this to be the readiest way to facilitate the pro- 
gress of his new regulations. He ventured, how- 
ever, on a bold experiment. By making their old 
customs appear ridiculous, he hoped to induce his 
subjects to think lightly of their loss. With this 
view, he gave a grand entertainmeut, at which all the 
guests were ordered to be dressed in the ancient 
costume of Muscovy. At the same time one of his 
fools was to be married, by which he would have an 
opportunity of exhibiting to the guests how very 
absurd the ancient customs were on such occasions; 
one of which forbade any fire being lighted on a 
wedding-day, even in the depth of winter, which it 
now was, the warmth of the affection of the new- 
married couple being thought sufficient without any 
other fuel. He prohibited the use of wine to his 
guests, and made them drink mead and brandy; tell- 
ing them, in a jocular manner, " Your ancestors did 
so ; and surely ancient customs are always the best 



PETER THE GREAT. 139 

to be observed." The report of this entertainment, 
being spread over Moscow, gave great amusement 
to the people, who observed to one another, what a 
comical man their Tzar was. 

Since Peter's return from his travels, he had not 
only become much more social, but had lost his for- 
mer shyness and dislike to mix in large societies ; 
he now visited, in a familiar way, the most respect- 
able merchants' families, and explained to them his 
views for improving the trade of the country. One 
day, when dining with a foreign merchant, he was 
so much taken with the beauty and manners of his 
daughter, that he made proposals to the father that 
she should live at his court, on what terms is not 
mentioned. The story is romantic, but the truth of 
it well vouched. This virtuous young lady rejected, 
with indignation, the offer; but, dreading what 
might be the effect of a refusal on the all-powerful 
autocrat, she took the resolution of leaving Moscow 
that very night, without communicating her design 
even to her parents. Having provided herself with 
a little money, she repaired on foot to a small vil- 
lage, several miles off, where her old nurse lived, 
with her husband and their daughter — told her stor}^ 
and entreated them to conceal her from any pursuit 
that might be made. There was a wood near the 
village, into which she insisted on proceeding that 
very night. The husband being a wood-cutter by 
trade, conducted her to a little dry island in the 
midst of a morass, where he constructed a log-hut 
for her habitation, and here she remained for more 
than twelve months, her nurse providing little ne- 
cessaries for her support, which were carefully con- 
veyed to her by one of the three, and either the 
mother or the daughter attending her by night. 

The Tzar, calling at the house of the merchant tlie 
next day, and learning what had happened, flew into 
a great rage, and threatened him with the effect of 
his utmost displeasure, if his daughter was not im- 



140 MEMOIR OF 

mediately produced. Both father and mother pro- 
tested most solemnly, with tears of grief for the 
loss of their child, that they were alike ignorant as 
innocent of what had occurred, and expressed their 
fears, as nothing belonging to her was missing, that 
some dreadful disaster had befallen her. The Tzar 
was at length satisfied ; rewards were publicly ad- 
vertised for her recovery, but to no purpose ; and 
the parents and relations went into mourning, con- 
sidering she was no more. 

It happened that a colonel in the army was shoot- 
ing in the wood where the young lady was concealed, 
and, following his game, came upon the hut, and saw 
a young and beautiful girl in a peasant's dress. He 
soon discovered by her conversation that she was 
not the person she appeared to be, and a suspicion 
crossed his mind that she might be the lost lady, 
whose disappearance had made so great a noise. In 
the utmost confusion and distress, she entreated him, 
on her knees, not to betray her. He told her that 
all danger was now past, the Tzar was then other- 
wise engaged, and that she might with safety dis- 
cover herself, at least, to her parents. It will read- 
ily be supposed that an interesting adventure of this 
kind, between two young persons, laid the seeds of 
a mutual attachment. The colonel proceeded to 
make the happy discovery to her friends, who, how- 
ever, had still their apprehensions of the Tzar's 
anger. The colonel proposed to lay the whole story 
before Catharine, whose influence over Peter was 
already known ; he waited on her, who agreed to 
introduce him, the following morning, to the Tzar ; 
and, in the mean time, she put him in possession of 
the young lady's unfortunate case, and of the suffer- 
ings she must have undergone in so dismal a place. 
The Tzar showed a great deal of contrition, and de- 
clared himself ready to make all the amends in his 
power. Catharine, who probably was better ac- 
quainted with humannature than the Tzar^ suggested. 



PETER THE GREAT. 141 

that the best amends his majesty could make was to 
give the lady a handsome fortune, and the colonel for 
a husband. Peter at once agreed, and took upon 
himself the direction and expense of the marriage, 
and gave away the bride, saying, he was happy to 
present him with one of the most virtuous of women ; 
he also made the colonel a present, besides settling 
on her a pension of three thousand rubles a year. 
Captain Bruce says, " / had this her story from her 
own 'inoutJiy*' 

It is for this reason, namely, that of its being well 
authenticated, and as conveying a trait of Peter's 
character, that it is here introduced. Bruce also 
gives an account of another disappointment sus- 
tained by the Tzar, in the loss of a young lady, of 
whom he became enamoured. It happened soon 
after his divorce from Atokesa. *' One Miss Mons," 
he says, *' a very beautiful young lady, born at Mos- 
cow of foreign parents, was much in favour with 
the Tzar; but when he was abroad, Mr. Keyserling, 
then residing at Moscow as envoy from the King of 
Prussia, paid his addresses to and married her. 
When the Tzar returned, he was so much offended 
at Keyserling, that he ordered him to leave Mos- 
cow, which occasioned his immediate recall by the 
king his master, who sent another in his room." 
Bruce has probably mistaken the situation of Made- 
moiselle Mons, or Moens, w^hose intimacy with the 
Tzar was of a very different description. She w^as 
avowedly his mistress, and is mentioned as such by 
various authors, and, among others, by an English 
lady, wife of the resident at Moscow in the time of 
Peter the Great. Mrs. Vigors, in one of her letters 
to a friend in England, thus relates the circumstance 
which dissolved the connexion. 

" 1 have been visited by several of Mr. W 'sf 

* Mem. of P. H. Bruce, Esq. 
t Mr. Ward, her former husband. 



142 MEMOIR OF 

old acquaintance, one of whom was a courtier in 
your hero's time. She is a sensible woman, and^ 
entertains me with many of his private adventures* 
The following one I will relate, though long, as I 
think it shows he was not so savage as some have 
represented him. He had a violent passion for an 
officer's daughter, named Munce (Moens), and used 
more assiduous means to gain her than monarchs 
generally are forced to ; at last she yielded, and be- 
came his public mistress, and for many years he 
loved her with a fondness rarely found. One fatal 
day he went to see a castle he had built in the sea, 
attended by his own and foreign ministers. At their 
return, the Polish minister, by some accident, fell 
over the drawbridge and was drowned, notwith- 
standing all endeavours to save him. The emperor 
ordered all the papers in his pockets to be taken out 
and sealed up, before all the company. On search- 
ing his pockets, a picture dropped, which the empe- 
ror took up, and judge his surprise when he found 
it was the portrait of the lady. In a sudden gust of 
passion he tore open some of the papers, and found 
several letters from her to the deceased in the 
tenderest style. He left the company that in- 
stant, came alone to the apartment of my informant, 
and ordered her to send for the lady thither : when 
she entered, he locked the door on them three, and 
asked her how she came to write to such a person ? 
She denied she had ; he then produced the picture 
and letters, and when he told her of his death, she 
burst into tears, while he reproached her with m- 
gratitude in such a storm of passion, that my author 
expected to see her murdered; but on a sudden, he 
also melted into tears, and said he forgave her, since 
he so severely felt how impossible it was to conquer 
inclination; 'for,' he added, 'notwithstanding you 
have returned my fondness with falsehood, I find I 
cannot hate you, though I do myself for the mean- 
ness of spirit I am guilty of ; but it would be quite 



PETER THE GREAT. 143 

despicable in me to continue to live with you; there- 
fore begone, while I can keep my passion within the 
bounds of humanity. You shall never want, but I 
will never see you more.' He kept his word, and 
soon after married her to one who had an employ- 
ment at a distance, and was always kind to them in 
point of fortune.'^* 

Mrs. Vigors is right. Peter was not such a 
"savage as some have represented him.'' From 
the silence of his biographers, it may be inferred 
that this w^as the last of his youthful indiscretions, 
as regards the female sex, for had more existed, 
they would have been blazoned forth in every variety 
of shape ; the whole course of his life being minutely 
watched by the foreign residents, their secretaries 
and clerks, and reported to their employers — 



■ all his faults observed, 



Set in a note-book, learned and conned by rote." 

It seems, indeed, to have been the general belief, 
that his attachment to the fair sex was henceforward 
confined solely to Catharine j whose good conduct, 
affection, and unremitting attention fully entitled 
her to his undivided confidence, love, and esteem. 

* Letters from a lady who resided some years in Russia, 



144 MEMOIR OF 



CHAPTER VIL 

Continued Successes over the Swedes — Peter lays the Founda- 
tion of St. Petersburg-7His Saxon Ally deprived of the Crown 
of Poland — Takes Dorpt, and Narva, and Mittau — Augustus 
makes Peace with Charles — Disgraceful Conduct of the former 
— Seizure and inhuman Death of Patkul — Masterly Manoeuvre 
of Peter — Position of the Russian and Swedish Armies. 

The presence of the Tzar was soon deemed neces- 
sary on the north-eastern frontier of Sweden. He 
first hastened to Olonetz, where he had established 
a dock-yard, and a manufactory of small-arms. This 
place, situated on the eastern shore of Ladoga, was 
a spot of great importance for his future operations 
in that quarter. Near this lake, and not far from the 
Neva, was situated another important fortress, held 
by the Swedes, to which he laid siege both by land 
and water ; and it surrendered to Scherematof im- 
mediately after the capture of two Swedish vessels, 
that should have come to its relief, but which were 
both taken by the Tzar in person, who had assumed 
the command of the boats on the lake. On this 
occasion, as captain of bombardiers, he received the 
Order of St. Andrew as a reward for his gallant con- 
duct. In his journal he modestly observes, " On the 
30th May, we returned thanks to God for this naval 
victory, being the first; and, after this, those who 
had held commands on this service, namely, the cap- 
tain of bombardiers, and the Lieutenant Menzikoff, 
received the Order of St. Andrew, conferred on them 
bv the Admiral Count de Golownin, the most ancient 
knight of that Order."* 

It was the great importance which the Tzar at- 

* Journal de Pierre le Grand. 



PETER THE GREAT. 145 

tached to the expulsion of the enemy from the two 
shores of the Neva, and the occupation or destruc- 
tion of ail the Swedish posts which they held in 
Carelia and Ingria, that had hastened his departure 
from Moscow. In the mean time, Menzikoff had not 
been idle. Having proceeded to the mouth of the 
Neva, he obtained some success over the Swedish 
gun-boats that were hovering in that quarter ; at the 
same time Peter advanced against a Swedish fortress 
named Nianshantz, or, as he calls it, Kantzi, on the 
Carelian side of the Neva, near to the spot where 
Petersburg now stands. The Tzar, having made 
himself master of this fortress, called a council of 
war, in order to have its opinion, before he deter- 
mined whether they should strengthen the fortifica- 
tions of this new conquest, or look out for another 
position more spacious and less distant from the sea, 
the latter idea was adopted, and, after some days, 
they fixed upon a spot on an island near the mouth 
of the Neva, called Lust Eland, or Pleasure Island, 
where, on the 16th May, they laid the foundation of 
a new fortress. Here, in fact, the Neva divided 
itself into four or five branches, forming a flat delta 
of islands, covered with brush-wood and swamps, on 
which were a few miserable huts of some poor fisher- 
men. The fortress thus founded was named St. 
Petersburg ; and from this beginning has risen up, 
in the course of a hundred and thirty years, one of 
the most magnificent cities in the world. 

A few months after this, Menzikoff was sent down 
to the mouth of the river, to fix upon a spot on which 
to erect a fortress for the protection of the entrance. 
A low sandy island, close to that called Retusari, 
which commanded the deep and narrow channel of 
the Neva, appeared to him in every respect suitable 
for the purpose ; and his majesty, having examined 
and approved the position, named a day to go down 
and lay the foundation of a fort, which ^ould com- 
mand and proteGt the channel, and to which he gaor© 
N 



146 MEMOIR OF 

the name of Cronslot, and the town and buildings 
which subsequently arose on the adjacent island, 
and, indeed, the first fortress, received the name they 
now bear of Cronstadt. The model of the fortress 
was made by the Tzar himself, in wood, and he left 
Menzikoff to carry it into execution. lie then re- 
turned to superintend the works carrying on at his 
projected new city of Petersburg, taking up his lodg- 
ing in a small wooden house, which he caused to be 
erected for himself, and which is still preserved by 
a surrounding wall, as a memorial of this extraor- 
dinary man. 

In erecting the fortress of Petersburg, he availed 
himself of the ruins of the works at Nianshantz, 
which served for the foundation stones. This citadel 
was situated nearly about the centre of the intended 
city, and occupied the spot which is now the Acad- 
emy of Sciences. The command of it was given 
to Vassali Demetrievitz, and hence it took, and still 
retains, the name of Vassali na Ostrof—" Vassali 
upon the island." The whole surrounding country 
was a morass, in which not a stone of any descrip- 
tion could be found, — the people employed had little 
or no experience, — according to Captain Perry, the 
labourers were not furnished with the necessary 
tools, such as pick-axes, spades, shovels, planks, and 
the like : " Notwithstanding which," the same author 
observes, " the work went on with such expedition, 
that it was surprising to see the fortress raised within 
less than five months, though the earth, which is 
very scarce thereabouts, was, for the greater part, 
carried by the labourers in the skirts of their clothes, 
and in bags made of rags and old mats, the use of 
wheelbarrows being then unknown to them."* Un- 
der such untoward circumstances, in such a country, 
and amid such difficulties, it is indeed surprising 
that a town should have arisen, in the course of a 

* Perry. 



PETER THE GREAT. 147 

twelvemonth, said then to contain houses and huts, 
of one description or another, amounting to the 
number of thirty thousand.* 

Peter, however, was a man not to be diverted from 
his purpose by difficulties ; nor was he deterred from 
the attempt to make up, by sheer human labour, what 
might be wanting in skill and implements. For this 
purpose he collected together many thousand per- 
sons, from all parts of the empire, — Russians, Cos- 
sacks, Tartars, Calmucks, Finlanders, and Ingrians ; 
these people he employed in deepening the channels 
of the several branches, digging canals, and heaping 
up the earth, in order to raise the general level of 
the islands, which were so low as to be frequently 
overflowed. This severe labour, without shelter 
from the inclemency of the weather, in a climate 
of sixty degrees of latitude, with scanty fare of the 
worst kind, and frequently without any for a day or 
two together, caused such a mortality among them, 
that it is asserted not less than a hundred thousand 
men perished in the course of the first year. 

Though Peter, as has been seen, had no great 
affection for the priesthood, he always paid a high 
regard to religious duties, and constantly attended 
divine service, wherever he was resident and the 
means were afforded, without regarding what the 
particular tenets of the community were. One of 
the first buildings, after the citadel, was a church ; 
and he ordered a proper number of priests to be 
sent from Moscow, to perform the duties of their 
office. He directed, also, several merchants and 
tradespeople to repair to his new city, and exercise 
there their several trades and professions. The 
next public building erected, was a large hotel for 
the accommodation of the foreign ministers ; and, 
as Menzikoff undertook the management of the 
Tzar's public entertainments, a large house was 

* Mottley. Nestesuranoi. 



148 MEMOIR OF 

among the first to be constructed, to enable him to 
receive his sovereign's guests. In the mean time, 
the officers and private individuals were engaged in 
erecting houses, shops, and warehouses, all of wood, 
so that Petersburg soon exhibited the appearance of 
a large and respectable town. 

Matters, however, did not go on smoothly. Those 
who had been forced to a residence among the 
swampy islands of the Neva, as well as the numer- 
ous workmen, who had suffered dreadfully from 
disease and privations of every kind, at length be- 
came clamorous, gave vent to their murmurings, 
and a general dissatisfaction manifested itself in a 
singular manner. Peter was absent in the neigh- 
bourhood of Ladoga, having left Count Golofkin to 
superintend the works. One day the people set off 
in crowds to the church. The count repaired 
thither, but the crowd was so dense that he was 
obliged to return. He was told that the image of 
the blessed Virgin had shed tears, to show the people 
her affliction for their sufferings, and at being obliged 
to remain and witness them in that inhospitable part 
of the country. With such an omen before their 
eyes, they stated their conviction that some dread- 
ful convulsion threatened the new establishment. 
Golofkin thought this story, ridiculous as it was, of 
sufficient importance to authorize him to send off 
an express for the Tzar, who made his appearance 
the following day; proceeded immediately to the 
church ; summoned the people to attend ; and or- 
dered the priests to show him the miraculous signs 
exhibited by the holy Virgin. Having examined it 
attentively, and perceiving something oozing out of 
the eyes, he ordered one of the priests to takedown 
the image ; when, stripping off the covering behind, 
he discovered a small cavity close to the eyes, in 
which was deposited a little oil, that gradually oozed 
out, and trickled down her cheeks ; and, having ex 
posed this piece of priestly imposture to the pubhc 



PETER THE GREAT. 149 

he ordered the image to be taken to his house, tell- 
ing- the people he meant to deposite it in his cabinet 
of curiosities.* Another account says, the heads 
of the saints were sometimes made hollow, to 
hold water, in which, when it was necessary to 
make them weep, two or three little fishes w^ere put, 
whose motions caused the water to overflow through 
the eyes. 

It may well be supposed that the intention of 
building a second capital, and of forcing the inhabit- 
ants of the old one to migrate to the bleak regions 
of the north, met with great opposition from the 
boyars and superior classes ; and, in fact, nothing 
short of despotic authority could have established 
Petersburg as the new residence of the Tzars. But 
Peter, more enlightened than his subjects, was fully 
aware of the importance of the situation. As a 
modern writer justly observes, "The internal im- 
provement of the Russian empire, the great object 
of Peter's reign, was considerably advanced by ap- 
proaching the capital to the more civilized parts of 
Europe : by this means he drew the nobility from 
their rude magnificence and feudal dignity at Mos- 
cow, to a more immediate dependence on the sove- 
reign, to more polished manners, to a greater degree 
of social intercourse. Nor did any other cause, 
perhaps, so much tend to promote his plans for the 
civilization of his subjects, as the removal of the 
imperial seat from the inland provinces to the Gulf 
of Finland."! 

The Tzar had, evidently, and indeed he avowed it, 
Amsterdam in his eye, when he planned and marked 
out St. Petersburg. The wharves of the river, the 
canals, the bridges, the straight-lined streets planted 
with trees, were all after the Dutch model. He had 



♦ Staehlin. Authority, M. Corniodon, Intendant of the 
C5eurt. 
-t Oo^9 Tity^ in Raseia- 

■ N2 



150 MEMOIR OF 

taken with him, from Voronitz and other places, 
several Dutch architects, ship-builders, masons, and 
artisans well versed in securing foundations on 
swampy ground, similar to that on which Amsterdam 
is built ; in short, the earliest part of the city, which 
stands on the Vassali Ostrof, is entirely after the 
Dutch taste ; and to a small island, on which vast 
quantities of timber are usually collected and stowed, 
he gave the name of New-Holland. 

Five months had scarcely elapsed from laying the 
first stone of St. Petersburg, when a report was 
brought to the Tzar that a large ship, under Dutch 
colours, was standing into the river. It may be sup- 
posed that this was a joyful piece of intelligence 
for the founder. It was nothing short of realizing . 
the wish, nearest his heart, to open the Baltic foi 
the nations of Europe to trade with his dominions ; 
it constituted them his neighbours ; and he at once 
anticipated the day when his ships would also float 
on his own waters, would beat the Swedish navy, 
and drive them from a sea on which they had long 
floated triumphant with undivided sway. When 
Peter was employed in building his fleet at Voronitz, 
Patrick Gordon one day asked him, " Of what use 
do you expect all the vessels you are building to be, 
seeing you have no seaports V " My vessels shall 
make ports for themselves," replied Peter, in a de- 
termined tone ; a declaration which was now on the 
eve of being accomplished. 

No sooner was the communication made, than 
the Tzar, with his usual rapidity, set off to meet this 
welcome stranger. The skipper was invited to the 
house of Menzikoff ; he sat down at table ; and, to 
his great astonishment, found that he was placed 
next the Tzar, and had actually been served by him. 
But not less astonished and delighted was Peter, on 
learning that the ship belonged to, and had been 
freighted by, his old Zaandam friend with whom he 
had resided, Cornelius dAL Permission was im* 



PETER THE GREAT. 151 

mediately given to the skipper to land his cargo, 
consisting of salt, wine, and other articles of pro- 
visions, free of all duties. Nothing could be more 
acceptable to the inhabitants of the new city than 
this cargo, the whole of which was purchased by 
Peter, Menzikoff, and the several officers ; so that 
Auke Wibes, the skipper, made a most profitable ad- 
venture. On his departure he received a present of 
five hundred ducats, and each man of the crew one 
hundred rix-dollars, as a premium for the first ship 
that had entered the port of St. Petersburg. In the 
same year another Dutch ship arrived, with a cargo 
of hams, cheese, butter, gin, &c., and received the 
same premium ; and the third was given to an Eng- 
lish ship, which entered the port in the first year of 
the building of the city.* 

While Peter was thus busily employed in creating 
a new capital, the King of Sweden was making his 
way with the diet of Poland, and endeavouring to 
prevail on them to dethrone Augustus. He was 
fully aware of the Tzar's proceedings, and of the 
rapid progress that he was making in building a city 
on the banks of the Neva. But when this was once 
mentioned to Charles, he is reported to have said, 
*' Let him amuse himself as he thinks fit in building 
his city ; I shall soon find time to take it from him, 
and to put his wooden houses into a blaze." As to 
Augustus, he had lost entirely the affections of the 
Poles ; so that the cardinal-primate, who had long 
flattered and deceived him, at last threw off the 
mask, and declared, at an assembly held at Warsaw, 
the 14th of February, 1704, that Augustus, Elector 
of Saxony, was incapable of any longer wearing 
the crown of Poland. It was, therefore, agreed 
that the throne was vacant, and that a new election 
must be made. The Tzar addressed an indignant 
letter to the cardinal-primate, and to the " most iUus- 

♦ Scheltema's Russia and Netherlands. 



152 MEMOIR OF 

trious, generous, and magniHcent lords," which, 
however, produced no effect on the confederated 
nobility. 

They proceeded to elect Prince James Sobieski, 
recommended by the King of Sweden ; but intelli- 
gence was just then brought from his brother Alex- 
ander, stating, that, as his brothers James and Con- 
stantine were hunting near Breslaw, a party of 
about thirty horse, sent by Augustus for the purpose, 
had seized and forcibly carried them off to Leipsic, 
where they were kept in close cofifinement. Charles 
then proposed Alexander for the crown, which his 
father had worn before him, but he absolutely refused 
to accept it while his elder brother was alive. The 
King of Sweden next named Stanislaus Lescinsky, 
a young nobleman endowed with great virtues and 
accomplishments, who was then, by the voice of 
the diet, declared King of Poland and Grand-duke 
of Lithuania. 

Augustus, having heard of the election of Stanis- 
laus, assembled a council at Sendomir, and there 
caused him to be declared a rebel and a traitor. But 
while the Elector of Saxony was abusing his suc- 
cessful rival, in idle declamations, Charles was 
everywhere routing his Saxon troops. Thus cir- 
cumstanced, the Tzar had not much hope of assist- 
ance from the deposed monarch. He himself was, 
however, growing every day more formidable ; his 
troops were now in a high state of discipline, and 
fit to meet tlie Swedes man to man ; his ofncers were 
well trained in their military duties ; he had several 
fine regiments of cavalry, good engineers, and a 
serviceable artillery; and such was now the strength 
of his army, that, in virtue of a treaty he had made 
with Augustus, he was able to send him a reinforce- 
ment of twelve thousand men into Lithuania, to 
support him in that province, which had, as yet^, de- 
clared for neither party. In the mean time the Tzar 
disposed his forces, iii the sprmg of 1704, into two 



PETER THE GREAT, 153 

divisions : the one, under Field-marshal Scherema- 
tof, he destined to lay siege to Dorpt ; the other, 
under his immediate orders, to proceed to the attack 
of Narva, where he had formerly sustained so de- 
structive a defeat. 

To besiege Dorpt, it was necessary to be master 
of the navigation of the lake Peipus. For this pur- 
pose, a flotilla was placed at the mouth of the Em- 
bach, and the infantry, with some field-pieces, lined 
the banks. The Swedish squadron advanced down 
the river, to attack the Russian flotilla ; a battle en- 
sued, the result of which was the capture or destruc- 
tion of all the Swedish vessels. The vessel of the 
commander, Loscher, was blown up, and the victory 
was so complete, that the Russians sat down, with- 
out molestation, before Dorpt. The brave com- 
mandant of this place held out for more than six 
weeks, when a breach was made, and one thousand 
men were prepared for the assault. A great slaugh- 
ter ensued ; and the commandant, to prevent the 
remainder of the garrison being put to the sword, 
proposed, and was granted, an honourable capitula- 
tion. Though Peter had assisted in the siege of this 
place, and was constantly passing to and from Narva, 
the siege of the latter was under his immediate di- 
rection, and matters were now ready for an assault. 
It was necessary, in the first place, to get possession 
of three bastions, which bore the renowned names 
of victory^ honour^ and glory. The Tzar carried all 
three, with sword in hand; the besiegers rushed 
forward into the town, and fell immediately to plun- 
der. The most horrid barbarities ensued, and all 
those outrages against decency and humanity which 
are but too common on the sacking of a town, and 
which both Russians and Swedes were in the habit 
of practising to the greatest excess, were committed 
in this unfortunate place. But Peter, barbarian as 
he has been supposed, on seeing his men intent on 
slaughter and pillage, ran from place to place to stay 



154 MEMOIR OF 

their fury, rescuing women and children from the 
hands of a savage soldiery, and slaying, without 
compunction, several of the barbarous brutes who 
would not listen to his orders. He then proceeded to 
the Hotel de Ville, where great numbers of the un- 
fortunate citizens had taken refuge ; he there threw 
down his sword, reeking with blood, upon the table, 
saying, " My sword is not stained with the blood of 
the inhabitants of this city, but with that of my own 
soldiers, which I have not hesitated to spill to save 
your lives." 

Thus, with the acquisition of Dorpt and Narva, 
the year 1704 saw Peter in possession of all Ingria, 
the government of which he conferred on his fa- 
vourite IMenzikofF, creating him, at the same time, 
a prince of the empire and major-general in the 
army. " The pride and prejudice of other coun- 
tries," says Voltaire, " might find fault with a sove- 
reign for raising a pastry-cook's boy to the post of 
general, and governor, and to princely dignity ; but 
Peter had accustomed his subjects not to be sur- 
prised at seeing him prefer men of abilities to per- 
sons who had nothhig to recommend them but their 
high birth." Menzikoff had, unquestionably, very 
splendid abilities, thoug-h Gordon will not allow of 
his mihtary talent. While in the Tzar's family he 
had made himself perfect in several languages ; he 
became an officer, at least, of considerable talent, 
and was of great assistance to his master both in 
the cabinet and the field; and, by his insinuating 
manners and lively good-humour, he gained over a 
great many of the nobles, who for some time had 
shown a decided hostility both to him and to the in- 
novations of his master. Such a man was deemed 
most fit to govern and protect the important prov- 
ince, which opened to Russia a lucrative commerce, 
and speedy intercourse with the rest of Europe. 
Some few demonstrations had been made, in the 
course of the year, on the part of the Swedes, to 



PETER THE GREAT. 155 

interrupt the operations on the Neva, but they all 
failed. The only formidable attempt occurred when 
Peter was in Poland, in June, 1705. A Swedish 
squadron of twenty-two ships of war, with a num- 
ber of transports, landed a numerous body of men 
on the island of Kitin, when the Russian troops, who 
had laid themselves down flat on the ground, sud- 
denly started up, and falling on the Swedes un- 
awares, obliged them to retreat, in the utmost confu- 
sion, to their ships, abandoning their dead, and leav- 
ing behind three hundred prisoners. 

Peter, therefore, deeming himself secure in this 
quarter directed a more particular attention to the 
proceedings of Charles XII. in Poland. He first 
made an offer to the dethroned king Augustus, to 
supply him with a fresh body of troops, in addition 
to the twelve thousand men which he had already 
sent him ; and General Repnin was accordingly or- 
dered to march from the frontiers of Lithuania with 
six thousand horse and six thousand foot. This 
being done, after first paying a visit to Voronitz, to 
be present at the launching of the first ship of eighty 
guns, built from a draught of his own, Peter hastened 
to join the confederated army in Poland, in order to 
open the first campaign of the year 1705, in support 
of his old ally Augustus. He proceeded to Vilna, 
in Lithuania, while Marshal Scherematof was ad- 
vancing upon Mittau, the capital of Courland. In 
his way he fell in with the Swedish general Lewen- 
haupt, at a place called Gemauers, where an obsti- 
nate battle was fought, in which the Russians were 
defeated, with the loss of five to six thousand men, 
and the field-marshal was wounded ; but the victory- 
was dearly purchased by the Swedes, who had two 
generals and several other officers killed, and two 
thousand men left on the field. Lewenhaupt, in his 
report of this battle to the King of Sweden, observes, 
that the Russians had throughout behaved like brave 
soldiers. 



156 MEMOIR OF 

Notwithstanding this check, Peter ordered his 
army to march into Courland. General Repnin laid 
siege to the citadel of Mittau, after making himself 
master of the town ; and, after a short resistance, it 
surrendered by capitulation; but while this was 
carrying into execution, it was discovered by Rep- 
nin that the Swedes had pillaged the palace and ar- 
chives of the dukes of Courland, and had even en- 
tered the vaults, where their dead were deposited, to 
rob their bodies of certain jewels which they had on 
their necks and fingers. To the honour of the Rus- 
sian soldiers appointed to guard the vaults of the 
castle, on finding the bodies dragged from the tombs, 
and stripped of their ornaments, they refused to take 
charge until a Swedish colonel had examined the 
place, and given them a certificate that his own 
countrymen had committed this sacrilege.* 

The Tzar being now in possession of the greatest 
part of Courland, and Charles too much occupied in 
crowning the successor of the king whom he had 
been the means of dethroning, his majesty deter- 
mined to pass the remainder of the winter at Mos- 
cow, in order, by his presence, to give vigour to his 
new regulations for the encouragement of his sub- 
jects in the arts and sciences. 

Scarcely had the year 1706 commenced, when in- 
telligence was brought to Moscow that Charles XII. 
was advancing towards Grodno, in order to attack 
the Russian and Saxon forces ; and that Augustus 
had been obliged to retire precipitately towards 
Saxony, with four regiments of Russian dragoons. . 
The Tzar immediately set out to his relief, but found 
all the avenues to Grodno occupied by the Swedish 
troops, and his own dispersed. Peter was not to be 
dispirited by a check of this kind : he immediately 
set about collecting his scattered forces ; and Gen- 

♦ Nestesuranoi. Voltaire. Mottley. Journal de Pierre le 
Grai^d. 



PETER THE GREAT. 157 

eral Schullemberg, in whom Au^stus had placed 
his last hopes, was in full march, with twelve thou- 
sand Saxons and six thousand Russians, a part of 
those which the Tzar had furnished to the deposed 
sovereign. The Swedish Field-marshal Renschild 
interrupted his march with a body of ten thousand 
Swedes. The two armies met near the lit Je town 
of Frauenstadt ; a battle ensued, and the Saxons 
were defeated with great slaughter; a few battalions 
only escaped, and almost every man was wounded. 
The Tzar, in his manifesto, says that many of his 
troops, both Russians and Cossacks, were slaugh- 
tered in cold blood, three days after the battle. It is 
stated by Voltaire, in his History of Charles XII., 
and repeated in that of Peter I., that there was a 
French regiment in the Saxon army, who had been 
taken prisoners in the celebrated battle of Rochstedt, 
and who had the care of the artillery ; that they, 
dissatisfied with their Saxon masters, and admirers 
of the heroism of Charles XIL, laid down their arms 
as soon as they saw the enemy. The Journal of 
Peter does not mention this circumstance ; he merely 
states that the cavalry attacked the enemy with great 
impetuosity, and drove the infantry into a wood, 
but that the artillery had not been brought up. 

Voltaire further states, on the authorit}^ of King 
Stanislaus himself, that such were the barbarous 
cruelties practised by officers of both armies, that 
in one of the skirmishes, which frequently happened 
in Poland, a Russian officer, who had been his friend, 
came, after the defeat of the corps under his com- 
mand, to place himself under his protection; and 
that Steinbok, the Swedish general, shot him dead 
with a pistol, while he held him in his arms. 

Augustus had got together an army of twenty 
thousand men, with which he was prevailed on by 
General Patkul^ ambassador from the Tzar, to march 
into Poland to join the forces of Peter. These two 
sovereigns met a second time at Grodno, where Au-r 
O 



158 MEMOIR OF 

gustus instituted the order of the Wliite Eagle, with 
which he invested the Tzar, and some of the Rus- 
sian generals, as well as several of the grandees of 
Poland ; and to complete the farce, as M. Fonte- 
nelle is pleased to call it, he gave the commission 
of colonel to the Tzar and Menzikoff. Ridiculous 
as it might appear, the farce had both point and plot 
in it. In fact, it was the renovation of an ancient 
Polish order, created many centuries ago, and the 
object of restoring it was to conciliate the Polish 
prelates and nobles, and by their means to regain 
the crown, which Peter never despaired of, and at 
last accomplished for his wavering ally. 

Peter, being suddenly called away to quell a re- 
bellion, that had broken out in Astracan, left his 
army, amounting to twenty thousand men, with his 
faithful ally, commanded by Menzikoff. Charles 
XII. was at this time overrunning Saxony, and had 
proceeded to the very heart of the electorate of Au- 
gustus. Whether it was the fear that Charles would 
ruin his country, or admiration of his glorious ca- 
reer, like that of the French regiment which laid 
down their arms, or some jealousy created by the 
grandees of Lithuania, or the operation of all these, 
Augustus determined to seek for peace, cost what 
it might; and for this purpose sent Imhoff and 
Pfingsten, secretly and confidentially, with full 
powers, to treat with Charles. At the same time, 
he sent an order for the arrest of Patkul, who was 
then at Dresden, as the Tzar's ambassador, and threw 
him into prison. The two plenipotentiaries went 
privately by night to the camp of Charles XII. at 
Alt-Ranstadt, and delivered their credentials to him ; 
he desired them to wait, retired to his closet, and in 
a short time returned with a paper containing four 
articles, in which it was declared in writing that he 
would not make the least alteration. Firsts That 
King Augustus renounce for ever the crown of Po- 
land, and that he acknowledge Stanislaus as lawful 



PETER THE GREAT. 159 

king. Second, That he renounce all treaties he may 
have made with the Tzar of Muscovy. Third, 
That he send back immediately the two Sobieskis 
and all the Swedish prisoners. Fourth, That all 
Swedish deserters, and especially John Patkul, be 
delivered up. 

Just at this moment, and while the plenipoten- 
tiaries were negotiating this shameful treaty at Alt- 
Ranstadt, Prince MenzikofF, generalissimo of the 
Russian army, joined the forces of Augustus, near 
Calishe, with thirty thousand men. The deposed 
monarch was in the utmost state of confusion, and 
under dreadful apprehension lest Menzikoff should 
discover his defection ; but what added greatly to 
his chagrin was the sudden appearance of ten thou- 
sand Swedes under the command of General Meyer- 
feldt. What was Augustus to do in this awkward 
dilemma in which he was thus placed] — He did the 
very thing that he ought not to have done — he sent 
a confidential officer to acquaint Meyerfeldt with the 
negotiation that was going on ; but that general, as 
might have been foreseen, treated the message with 
contempt, as "• a weak invention of the enemy ;" and 
immediately offered battle, which, whether won or 
lost, would be alike fatal to Augustus. The Rus- 
sians obtained a complete victory ; the Swedes hav- 
ing lost about three thousand men killed, and Meyer- 
feldt, and several officers of distinction, and four 
thousand men taken prisoners. The victors entered 
Warsaw in triumph, and there Pfingsten presented 
Augustus with the treaty of peace he had just con- 
cluded, which deprived him for ever of his crown. 

Augustus had previously written, from the field of 
battle, a letter to his plenipotentiaries, more dis- 
graceful even than the treaty itself, which was in- 
tended to be shown to Charles, and in which he 
begged pardon for having obtained a victory, pro- 
testing that the battle was fought against his will ; 
that the Russians had obliged him to it ; that he had 



160 MEMOIR OF 

intended to abandon Menzikoff ; that Meyerfeldt 
ought to have beaten him, had he made a proper use 
of the opportunity ; that he would deUver up all the 
Swedish prisoners, or break with the Russians, in 
short, that he would give the King of Sweden all 
proper satisfaction, for having dared to beat his 
troops.* 

But the humiliation of Augustus was not yet com- 
plete. Leaving Menzikoff with the victorious army, 
he proceeded to Saxony, to place himself at the dis- 
cretion of the Swedish king. Charles was not gifted 
with the milk of human kindness ; the great fea- 
tures of his character w^ere obstinacy, severity, and 
cruelty. Augustus found him determined to exact 
compliance with every article of the treaty ; and as 
a further punishment for having dared to give battle 
to his general at Calishe, he forced upon him the 
ungrateful and humiliating task of writing a con- 
gratulatory letter to Stanislaus, on his c>ccession to 
the crown of Poland. Nor was this all ; he was 
peremptorily ordered to give up the unfortunate Pat- 
kul to the vengeance of the King of Sweden. Never 
was a sovereign prince placed in a more embarrass- 
ing situation, owing to his vacillating conduct ; for 
while Charles was heaping upon him all manner of 
indignities, the Tzar was loading him with bitter 
reproaches, and loudly demanded from him the res- 
toration of his ambassador; but Charles threatened 
what terrible things he would do, if he was not de- 
livered up to him according to the treaty of Alt- 
Ranstadt. 

The melancholy story of this unfortunate Livo- 
nian has left a stain on the character of Charles XII. 
that must for ever cast a cloud over his stern virtues 
and heroic actions. Charles XI. had exercised 
great severity against, and abridged many of the 
privileges of the Livonians. Patkul, with six of 

'* Voltaire. 



PETER THE GREAT. 161 

nis countrymen, was deputed by the nobility of 
Livonia to carry their grievances to the king, whom 
he addressed with great force and eloquence. 
Charles, so far from bemg displeased, laid his hand 
on Patkul's shoulder, and told him, " Ke had spoken 
for his country like a brave man, and that he loved 
him for it ;" yet, within a few days after this, the 
same Charles read his public accusation as a traitor. 
Patkul made his escape to Augustus, from whose 
service he passed into that of the Tzar, till he was 
thrown into confinement in the castle of Konigstein. 
It is said that, on the threats of Peter, Augustus, in 
order to pacify the Tzar and evade the wrath of 
Charles, secretly consented to the prisoner's escape, 
but that Patkul refused to pay to the mercenary 
governor the sum he demanded for his liberty, rely- 
ing on the law of nations, and, as he supposed, the 
friendly intentions of Augustus. In the mean time 
a party of Swedes came up, and forced the victim 
out of the hands of his jailer. He was carried to 
head-quarters at Alt-Ranstadt, and kept in chains 
for three months before his execution. 

It is said that Charles wrote out his sentence with 
his own hand, which was, to be broken alive on the 
wheel and quartered. He was at that time under 
an engagement of marriage to a Saxon lady of great 
beauty, birth, and merit : he desired the chaplain to 
wait on her, comfort her, and assure her that he 
died full of the tenderest love and affection for her. 
When led to the place of execution, a Swedish offi- 
cer read aloud from a paper as follows : — " This is 
to declare that the express order of his majesty, our 
most merciful lord, is, that this man, who is a traitor 
to his country, be broke upon the wheel and quar- 
tered, for the reparation of his crimes, and for an 
example to others ; that every one may take care 
of treason, and faithfully serve his king." At the 
words, "most merciful lord," Patkul cried out, 
" What mercy l" — and at those of " traitor to his 
2 



162 MEMOIR OF 

country," " Alas !" he said, " I have served it too 
well." He received sixteen blows, and endured a 
lon^ and dreadful torture. Thus died tlie unhappy- 
John Renold Patkul, ambassador and general of the 
Tzar of Russia.* 

Voltaire's observations on this murder are not 
more forcible than just. " There is not a civilian," 
he says, " in Europe, nay, there is not a slave, but 
must shudder with horror at this barbarous act of in- 
justice. The first crime of this unfortunate man 
was his having made an humble representation of the 
rights and privileges of his country, at the head of 
six Livonian gentlemen, who had been deputed by 
the whole state -, he was condemned for fulfilling the 
first of duties, that of serving his country according 
to her laws. So unjust a sentence fully restored him 
to aright which all mankind derive from nature, that 
of choosing his country. As he was the ambassador 
of one of the greatest monarchs in the whole world, 
his person ought to have been sacred. The laws of 
nature and nations were violated on this occasion, 
by the law of the longest sword. The splendour 
of high achievements used formerly to cover such 
cruelties; but now they are an indelible stain to 
military glory. "f 

The Tzar was highly incensed at this barbarous 
outrage on the part of the King of Sweden. He 
wrote letters to several of the potentates of Europe, 
complaining of the cowardice and treachery, as he 
deemed it to be, of his ally Augustus, and of the vio- 
lation of the law of nations by Charles XH. Some 
of his counsellors proposed to him, while in this 
state of exasperation, that he should retaliate on the 
Swedish officers v/ho were prisoners at Moscow; 
but Peter rebuked tliem severely for such a sugges- 
tion. If Charles was so dead to the feelings of liu- 

*Harleian MisceUaBy. Voltaire. John Mottley, &0- / 

tVoltair©. ' 



PBTER THE GREAT. 163 

manity, and to his own honour and reputation, that 
nothing but glutting his revenge in blood would 
satisfy him, Peter, with all his severity and irascible 
temper, was seldom, if ever, actuated in his punish- 
ments by feelings of that character. The revenge 
which he resolved to take, on the present occasion, 
was of a nobler and more honourable nature. He 
determined to follov^^ up, from that moment, the 
project agreed upon at Grodno by Augustus and him- 
self — to use every means in his power to defeat the 
views of Charles on Poland, by driving Stanislaus 
from the throne. He held a conference at Zolkeaw, 
where Prince Menzikoff had taken up his quarters, 
with several of the Polish grandees, who came there 
to pay their court to him, before they met at a gene- 
ral assembly to be held at Leopol ; and the gracious 
manner in which he received them entirely gained 
him their affection. 

In the first assembly, composed of the primate, 
several bishops, palatines, and senators, it was re- 
solved to renew the confederation of Sendom.ir, — 
and the grand question was, " Whether they had any 
king or not ]" which, passing in the negative, they 
talked of declaring the throne vacant, and agreed to 
summon a diet, to meet at Lublin in the following 
May. Peter attended this meeting with his son 
Alexis, then seventeen years of age, Prince Men- 
zikoff, and some others of his ministers. In June 
^hey met again, when, after many debates, the throne 
was declared vacant, and thereupon a diet was sum- 
moned for a third election. A report being spread 
that the Tzar intended to propose his son as a can- 
didate for the throne of Poland, to prevent any sus- 
picion of that kind he sent away the Tzarovitz to 
Moscow. 

Peter urged to the diet the strong necessity there 
was not to delay choosing a new sovereign, as the 
only way to reconcile the divided members of the 
l«publiCj and to show that they looked upon Stanis- 



164 MEMOIR OF 

laus in no other light than as Palatine of Posnania. 
He wrote to the primate and chief ministers of the 
crown, that he could not take any solid measure 
against Charles, and for the benefit of the republic, 
unless they chose a new king ; stating that, if they 
would not do so, he could not forbear suspecting that 
they were not acting sincerely towards him. It was 
finally agreed that an interregnum should be publicly 
declared, and that the primate should be invested 
with the office of regent till the election had taken 
place. But in the mean time King Stanislaus had 
been acknowledged by most of the sovereigns of 
Europe ; and, having left Charles in Saxony, was 
advancing into Poland with General Renschild at 
the head of sixteen Swedish regiments, and received 
as lawful king at every place through which he had 
passed. 

The Tzar was also informed that the King of 
Sweden, having replenished his military chest by 
the contributions he had levied in Saxony, and aug- 
mented his army to 50,000 men, in addition to the 
force under General Lewenhaupt, was meditating 
how he should bring the Tzar to an engagement. 
He was also informed that the Porte had made 
propositions to Charles and to Stanislaus to join with 
them in an offensive alliance against Russia, with the 
view of forcing him to abstain from all interference 
in Polish affairs ; and that, in consequence, Charles 
had openly declared his intention of making Russia 
the theatre of war, — where he had no doubt of find- 
ing support from the people, dissatisfied with the 
expenses of the contest, and more so with the nu- 
merous innovations made m the manners and cus- 
toms of their forefathers. The better part of the 
Tzar's subjects knew, however, that, unlike Charles, 
he made no war for personal ambition. Economical 
and simple in his tastes and habits, never was there 
a prince less prodigal of the revenues of the state. 
It may be truly said of him, that after an arduous 



PETER THE GREAT. 165 

and troublesome reign — after numerous grand de- 
signs and operations — after the construction and 
equipment of a powerful fleet, and a numerous and 
well-appointed army, both of his own creation — he 
left to his successor the finances of the country in 
a flourishing condition, and his subjects unburdened 
by any public debt. 

The French envoy to the court of Saxony made 
an attempt about this time to bring about a recon- 
ciliation between the Tzar and the King of Sweden ; 
but Charles made answer that he would treat with 
the Tzar in the city of Moscow. It was on this oc- 
casion that Peter said, " My brother Charles wishes 
to act the part of Alexander, but he shall not And in 
me a Darius." 

In August, 1707, Charles began his march from 
Alt-Ranstadt with his army above mentioned. While 
his troops were passing the walls of Dresden, Charles 
paid an extraordinary visit to King Augustus, which, 
Voltaire observes, was running a great risk, to trust 
himself in the hands of a prince whom he had 
stripped of his kingdom. Charles, however, had 
nothing to fear with 50,000 good troops at his heels. 
In passing through Poland the Swedes committed 
such horrid ravages that the peasantry rose in arms 
and destroyed several of his soldiers from ambus- 
cade, which the Swedes retaliated by murdering all 
that fell in their way, and reducing their habitations 
to ashes. The army went into winter-quarters in 
Lithuania. The Russian army was quartered in the 
provinces of Grodno and Minsk. 

While the two armies were thus taking up their 
winter-quarters, the Tzar repaired to Moscow, where 
he had not been the last tv/o years, and was received 
with every possible demonstration of joy. He wit- 
nessed with pleasure the completion of a large hos- 
pital, a dispensary, a cloth manufactory, and glass- 
house, which he had planned when last in the city. 
Some other manufactories, of private individuals. 



166 MEMOIR OF 

were in progress ; and, among others, that of pin- 
making, which Voltaire considers an unanswerable 
proof of the ignorance of the people, that this should 
be among the first they attempted ; and he had the 
satisfaction to find that the complaints and murmur- 
ing of the citizens at his new regulations had nearly 
subsided. But a courier having arrived from Men- 
zikoff, on the first day of the new year, 1708, which 
his Tzarish majesty was just celebrating, bringing 
an account of the movements of the King of Sweden, 
he immediately set out, and fixed his head-quarters, 
with six hundred of the guards, in the.city of Grodno, 
on the 6th February, — where, by a mistake of one of 
his officers, he very narrowly escaped falling into 
the hands of the Swedish king : for Charles, having 
heard of his arrival there, hurried away with only 
eight hundred of his guards, and marched directly to 
Grodno. A German officer, who commanded one 
of the gates of the town, on seeing the approach of 
the king, and supposing he was followed by his 
whole army, instead of disputing his passage, left it 
open. An alarm was immediately spread all over 
the town ; the cry was, the enemy's whole force had 
entered ; the few Russians who attempted to oppose 
the Swedish guards v/ere cut in pieces; and the 
Tzar, being assured that the Swedes were masters 
of the town, retreated behind the ramparts, and 
Charles placed a guard at the very gate through 
which Peter had retired. 

The Tzar now collected his forces in the pala- 
tinate of Minsk, and, finding that Charles v/as pur- 
suing him from the neighbourhood of Grodno, con- 
ceived the plan of drawing him on towards apart 
of the country from which he could obtain little or 
no subsistence — w^iere he would have no magazines 
nor safe retreat — and where, after establishing his 
own army behind secure lines, he might attack with 
advantage his fatigued troops. This was a masterly 
piece of generalship on the part of Peter, — and the 



I 



PETER THE GREAT. 167 

more so, since he could so place his own army as to 
leave open to it a retreat, if necessary, over a tract 
of country which would afford him plenty of sub- 
sistence. He marched, therefore, to the right bank 
of the Borysthenes, or Dneiper, and intrenched him- 
self between Mohilow, or Moghile, and Orsha, — a 
position which secured him an open and free com- 
munication with Smolensko. Having- abundance of 
provisions for the main army, fifteen thousand men 
were sent under General Goltz to join twelve thou- 
sand Cossacks, with orders to lay waste and destroy 
the country for thirty miles round, and then to rejoin 
the Tzar beyond the Borysthenes. This measure 
obliged the Swedes to canton their army, and to 
encamp for want of forage, till the month of May. 
Such was the position of the two armies in the 
spring of 1708. 



CHAPTER YHL 

The Battle of Pultowa. 



The day was now approaching when the two he- 
roes were, for the first and last time, to be brought 
into personal conflict at the head of their respective 
armies ; to measure their strength, to show their 
skill in mihtary movements, and to fight the decisive 
battle. 

The Russian army consisted at this time of about 
100,000 effective men, of which 38,000 were infantry, 
about the same number of cavalry, 20,000 Cossacks, 
and 6000 Calmucks. The Swedes had 79 squadrons, 
61 battalions of dragoons, and 101 battalions of in- 
fantry, making in the whole about 88,000 men ; but 
inferiority in point of numbers was more than com- 



168 MEMOIR OF 

pensated by the superior skill of the officers and the 
higher quality of the troops. 

It was not till the 25th of June that any affair of 
importance took place, when the King of Sweden 
came up with the division of 15,000 Russians, under 
General Goltz, who had encamped on the river Be- 
rezina, and was just joined by the two corps under 
Prince Repnin and the Field-marshal Scherematof. 
The King of Sweden made an attack on the three 
corps with the whole of his cavalry, which was gal- 
lantly received and vigorously resisted by the Rus- 
sians. The action lasted four hours, with great 
slaughter and great bravery on both sides. The 
Swedes lost a number of officers and 5000 men. 
The loss of the Russians was a major-general, six- 
teen captains, three lieutenants, and about 2000 men 
killed.* Charles was on horseback until Captain 
Gyllenstiern, a young Swede for whom he had a 
great esteem, was wounded and unable to march, 
when the king gave him his own horse, and fought, 
during the rest of the battle, on foot, at the head of 
his guards. t The Tzar did not arrive at this de- 
tachment of his army till two days after the battle. 
A report being spread that Charles had threatened 
to push on direct for Moscow, there to dictate to 
Peter such conditions of peace as he might think 
proper, the latter employed the corps under Goltz 
to lay waste the whole country between the Borys- 
thenes and the frontiers of Smolensko, which was 
the direct line the Swedes would probably take, pro- 
vided the king should attempt to carry his threat 
into execution ; and this having been accomplished 
by the Russian general, nothing short of an act of 
madness could induce so large an army to take 
that route. 

Charles, however, showed an indication of lead- 
ing his forces into the Russian territories by cross- 

♦ NejTfftCTiranoi. f Mottley. ^, 



PETER THE GREAT. 169 

ing the Borysthenes. The Tzar observed his move- 
ments, but remained quietly in his position ; not at 
all displeased to see the whole force of the enemy 
on that side of the river, where, in case of disaster, 
he could neither hope for succours nor a safe re- 
treat, and where a decisive victory only could save 
him. Peter, however, judged it advisable not to haz- 
ard, if it could be avoided, a general engagement, by 
which, if unsuccessful, an entrance would be laid 
open to the enemy into the very heart of his domin- 
ions. He resolved, therefore, after the manner of 
the Cossacks, to send out from his army several 
small corps, attacking, retreating, and wasting the 
country, so as to divert the enemy, and to make it 
difficult, if not impossible, for him to follow them. 
In the several skirmishes that took place, in some 
of which Charles exposed himself so as narrowly to 
escape with life, the Russians generally gave way, 
but left a waste behind them. Charles, however, 
still pushed on, in spite of all obstacles, almost to 
Smolensko, in the direct road to the capital of Rus- 
sia. But at length, his army becoming grievously 
exhausted by fatigue and famine, and perpetually 
harassed by the constant attacks of the Russian 
skirmishers and Cossacks, — and finding, moreover, 
that the adherents he had flattered himself he should 
meet with, on entering Russia, entirely failed him, — 
he gave up all hope of reaching Moscow, where he 
had fondly flattered himself to treat of peace with 
his brother Peter, and turned suddenly towards the 
Ukraine. This false step proved the ruin of Charles 
and his army. 

Peter under whose orders the King of Sweden had 
been thus harassed, was at a loss to comprehend 
what could possibly be the intentions of Charles 
in making this desperate movement towards the 
Ukraine, which appeared to him nothing less than 
the road to certain destruction, as that country was 
well defended by 30,000 Cossacks, under the com- 
P 



170 MEMOIR OF 

mand of the Hetman Mazeppa, on whose fidehty he 
placed the utmost confidence. The mystery, how- 
ever, of this movement was soon explained. Ma- 
zeppa, from some r^al or fancied slight he had 
received from the Tzar, had turned traitor, and sent 
a favourite officer to Charles to say, that the people 
of the Ukraine regarded him as their liberator, and 
that they would receive him with open arms. Se- 
duced by this proffered support, Charles was pre- 
vailed on to take a step which, among other disad- 
vantages, had that of separating himself from his 
best general, Lewenhaupt. This able officer did all 
he could to form a junction with the army under the 
king, but he had to traverse a ruined country, and 
was continually pursued and harassed in his march 
by General Bauer, who never for a moment lost 
sight of him. This general passed the Borysthenes 
on the 6th October at Mohilow, where he joined the 
Tzar, the Prince Menzikoff, and General Goltz, so 
that Lewenhaupt found himself surrounded by fifty 
or sixty thousand Russians, commanded by the Tzar 
in person. 

The Swedish general made a charge on the out- 
posts of the Russians, near the village of Lesno, and 
killed some four or five hundred men, when, after 
the first volley, the Russian infantry gave way and 
took to flight. Peter, on hearing this, was highly 
incensed, and gave immediate orders that a number 
of Cossacks and Calmucks should be placed behind 
the line, with positive directions to sabre every man 
who should attempt to quit the ranks, without regard 
to persons, even himself, if he should be guilty of 
such cowardly conduct. 

Lewenhaupt, after this aflfair, continued his march 
towards Propoisk, over roads nearly impracticable, 
intersected by woods and marshes, and pursued by a 
Russian army, which had been reinforced by three 
or four thousand dragoons, close to his heels. 
Lewenhaupt soon saw that the only chance left for 



Ti 



PETER THE GREAT. 171 

safety was on the issue of a battle. For this pur- 
pose he made the best possible disposition to receive 
the Russians ; he placed two battalions in advance, 
which were furiously attacked by Colonel Zambel 
with four battalions of the Tzar's guards ; the result 
was, that at least half of the battahon of the Swedes 
were left on the field. This affair brought on a 
general action, in which the Tzar, amid a most tre- 
mendous fire, passed from one part of the line to the 
other, and was everywhere animating, by his valour 
and his presence, both officers and soldiers. The 
battle continued with the greatest obstinacy the 
whole day, when the Swedes retired behind their 
baggage-wagons, and the fire began to slacken. 

The night having come on, and the difficulty of 
dislodging the enemy from behind his wagons being 
apparent, Peter forbade his officers, on pain of being 
cashiered, and his soldiers on the penalty of death, to 
go out for the plunder of the dead bodies ; and also 
ordered the whole army to remain under arms. It 
was observed that the Swedes kept up, during the 
night, great fires around the wagons. At dawn of 
day the Tzar had ordered that an attack should be 
made upon the Svyedes, but it was discovered that 
Lewenhaupt had gone off in the course of the night, 
leaving behind him the wounded to the discretion of 
the Russians, and also the 7000 wagons destined to 
relieve the wants of the army under the king his 
master. Lewenhaupt swam the river Sissa with 
the remains of his army, and escaped with about 
four thousand men to join the King of Sweden at 
Starudub upon the Desna. The prisoners taken by 
the Russians were — 103 officers, 2673 men, 47 
colours, 10 standards, 16 pieces of cannon, 7000 
wagons, and all the arms, ammunition, and bag- 
gage. The loss of the Russians was 70 officers 
killed or dangerously wounded, and 1200 soldiers 
killed or wounded. Among the wounded officers 
were his highness of Darmstadt, General Bauer, and 



172 MEMOIR OF 

Colonel Weyde. This was the first great battle in 
which the Tzar was present in person, and the first 
pitched battle gained by the Russians against an 
enemy who had gained so many victories over 
them. It was estimated that the total loss of the 
Swedes, under Lewenhaupt, amounted to eight 
thousand men, seventeen pieces of cannon, and 
forty-four colours, and the whole convoy of pro- 
visions intended for that part of the army under 
Charles, of which it stood in the greatest need. 

In the mean time, Charles was very uneasy at the 
non-arrival of Lewenhaupt on the expected day, and 
equally so on hearing nothing from Mazeppa, by 
whom he now began to suspect he was betrayed. 
Just, however, as he was preparing to pass the 
Desna, Mazeppa made his appearance — not indeed 
with a reinforcement of 20,000 men, and a large 
supply of provisions, as he had promised, but with 
two regiments only, and rather as a fugitive, who 
was in need of succours himself, than as a powerful 
prince bringing assistance to an ally placed in dif- 
ficult circumstances. He reported to the king that 
he had begun his march with sixteen thousand men, 
intended to be led, as he had made them believe, 
against the King of Sweden, who was desolating 
their country, and promising them that, after obtain- 
ing the honour of obstructing his progress, they 
would, for this piece of service, lay the powerful 
Tzar of Russia under eternal obligation, and be 
rewarded accordingly. 

Mazeppa further stated that, on approaching the 
Desna, he had thought it right to undeceive his men, 
and therefore, made them acquainted with his real 
design : that they received the proposed act of revolt 
with indignation, and positively refused to betray a 
monarch agarnst whom they had no grounds of 
complaint, and that too for the sake of a Swede, 
who was marching an army into the heart of their 
country, and who, having laid it waste, would after- 



PETER THE GREAT. 173 

ward leave them to the mercy of the powerful Tzar, 
whom they had outraged. The result was that, 
with the exception of the few men he had brought 
with him, all the rest deserted him and returned to 
their homes. 

This intelligence was a severe blow to Charles in 
the present reduced state of his army, and the un- 
fortunate position in which he was placed . Mazeppa 
informed him that he had still possession of some 
fortresses in the Ukraine, and particularly that of 
Bathurin, which v/as his place of residence and the 
capital of the Cossacks. This place, situated near 
the forests of the Desna, was not of sufficient 
strength to stand a siege, but might serve to impede 
the Russians, and cause them to divide their forces. 
He ordered, therefore, a reinforcement to strengthen 
its garrison. The Tzar, however, had already sen 
Menzikoff and Galitzin, by a circuitous route, to at- 
tack this fortress, and on their appearing before it, 
the town was taken almost without resistance, 
plundered, and reduced to ashes. 

A council of war was now held at the Russian 
head-quarters, when sentence of excommunication 
was passed on Mazeppa by the Archbishop of Kiow, 
assisted by two other prelates ; after which the 
traitor was hanged in effigy, and some of his accom- 
plices, taken in Bathurin, were broken on the wheel. 
The principal men of the Cossacks then repaired to 
the church, and, after divine service, assembled in a 
large body to elect a new hetman : when the choice 
having fallen on John Skoropatsky, he was declared 
their general amid the acclamations of the people. 
This new general, attended by Menzikoff and Golof- 
kin, and by a great number of officers, went imme- 
diately to the quarters of the Tzar, who confirmed 
his election. 

All this happened in the month of November, 
at which inclement season Charles had to march 
through a country that was quite desolate, all the. 
P2 



174 MEMOIR OF 

villages having- been burnt or destroyed ; nor did it 
appear that he had any definite object in view ; 
while the defeat of Lewenhaupt and the disappoint- 
ment of Mazeppa's reinforcement, and the setting in 
of winter, appeared to render his situation hopeless. 
In the month of December the cold became so ex- 
tremely intense, that, in one of the marches, an 
enormous number of men are stated to have dropped 
down, either dying at once on the spot, or being left 
behind to perish. The Russians had their own 
country open to them in their rear, and received all 
manner of supplies; but the poor Swedes, being 
nearly naked, and half-famished, were unable to 
resist the inclemency of the weather. The effect- 
ive force of the Swedish army was now reduced to 
about five-and-twenty thousand men, besides the 
shattered remains of Lewenhaupt's corps, which 
could not exceed five thousand, and those brought 
with Mazeppa, which might be about two thousand 
more. 

Reduced to this deplorable situation, the Swedish 
chancellor. Count Piper, the able and prudent adviser 
of the king, entreated him to halt in a small town of 
the Ukraine, called Romira, where he might intrench 
his fatigued and dispirited army, and, in all proba- 
bility, be supplied with provisions by means of Ma- 
zeppa. P^very rational consideration ought to have 
prevailed on the king to listen to this advice, es- 
pecially as the Russians were gone into winter- 
quarters, and not disposed to molest him ; but 
Charles, with his habitual obstinacy, said it was 
beneath his dignity to shut himself up in a town. 
Piper then endeavoured to prevail on him to repass 
the Desna and the Borysthenes, and to retrace his 
steps into Poland ; there to put his troops into quar- 
ters, and to obtain those refreshments of which they 
stood so greatly in need. He represented to him 
the absolute necessity there was, independent of 
their own deplorable condition, to support King 



PET^R THE GREAT. 175 

Stanislaus, whom he himself had raised to the 
throne of Poland, and to defeat the views which 
the adverse party had of a new election, which 
would probably be carried in favour of his enemy, 
the late King Augustus. But this proposal had no 
better success. Charles replied, that if he did this, 
it would be considered the same thing as flying be- 
fore the Tzar ; that as to the season, it might be 
expected soon to grow milder; that he was de- 
termined to subdue the Ukraine, and then to march 
straight forward to Moscow : such was the infatua- 
tion that had got possession of the mind of Charles. 

Both armies, however, were compelled, from the 
intense cold of December and January, to remain in 
a state of inactivity. Charles first broke ground, 
by sending out detachments, as soon as the men 
were able to handle their arms, to attack and drive 
in the several small posts which had been placed by 
the Russians to obstruct his movements. This, in 
fact, was absolutely necessary, to enable him to 
obtain subsistence, the army being driven to the last 
extremity. For twenty leagues round, the peasantry 
of the Ukraine were robbed and pillaged by the 
Swedes ; nor does it appear that the latter were at 
all obstructed by the Russians, who remained quietly 
in their winter-quarters, Peter having, in all proba- 
bility, deemed it the best policy to leave the Swed- 
ish army unmolested, knowing that it was rapidly 
mouldering away. 

The senseless obstinacy of Charles was the ruin 
of himself and his whole army. In February he 
began his march across the Ukraine, to the south- 
east, burning all the villages and peasants' houses 
as he passed along, till he reached the sandy deserts 
to the westward of the river Donetz, which parses 
through the country of the Don Cossacks. What 
his object could have been in taking this direction 
it is not easy to conjecture ; but it is quite clear he 
was whoUy unacquainted with the nature of the 



176 MEMOIR OF 

country. He was, therefore, compelled to retrace 
his steps, and return across that very territory 
which he had just laid waste. His army, destitute 
of provisions, swept away the few remaining cattle 
from the peasantry, who, in their turn, murdered the 
soldiers, whenever they were strong enough to 
; contend with them. This marching and counter- 

I ' marching, by which his army was daily wasting in 

- numbers, continued nearly three months, without 

answering any other purpose than that of harassing 
and weakening his forces. In the month of May he 
reached the river Vorskla, on which is situated the 
small fortified town of Pultowa, a place that had 
been garrisoned by the Russians, under the com- 
mand of General Allart, an experienced engineer 
officer. This place the Tzar had taken care to sup- 
ply with abundance of provisions and ammunition, 
considering it as a point of the greatest importance 
that it should not be occupied by the Swedes. It is 
so situated, that several passes lead from it through 
the mountains, in a northerly direction, all of which 
communicate with the great road to Moscow ; and 
as Charles seemed to have made up his mind not to 
relinquish his proud vision of dictating a peace to 
the Tzar in the Kremlin, he conceived the first step 
towards it would be the possession of Pultowa. 

Charles, accordingly, laid siege to this fortified 
place, with about eighteen thousand men, the re- 
mains of an army consisting of at least forty thousand 
v/hen he left Saxony the year before. Peter was 
fully prepared for its defence ; and while Charles 
had been employed in wasting his army, the Tzar 
had availed himself of the w^inter months in visiting 
his establishments on the Don, from Voronitz to 
Asoph ; had given orders for improving the harbours, 
for constructing an additional number of ships, and 
for repairing and strengthening the fortress of Ta- 
ganroc. On his return he was made fully acquainted 
with the proceedings of Charles ; and on the I5ik 



PETER THE GREAT. 177 

of June, 1709, he appeared before Pultowa, with an 
army from fifty to sixty thousand strong^. He forth- 
with detached Menzikoff, with a corps, to make a 
feint, as if he was about to offer battle to the be- 
siegers, who came out of their trenches to accept 
the challenge, and by this diversion Menzikoff suc- 
ceeded in throwing into the place a reinforcement 
of troops", which increased the garrison to about 
two thousand men. When Charles discovered this 
manoeuvre, he could not forbear saying, " I see well 
that we have taught the Muscovites the art of war." 

Peter, having now determined to bring on a general 
action, disposed his army in two long lines, between 
the Borysthenes and the Vorskla, which falls into 
the former, forming, at the junction, rather an acute 
angle, into which the Swedes would be driven, in the 
event of a defeat. He covered these lines by several 
redoubts, hastily thrown up, behind which he placed 
his cavalry and artillery. Several skirmishes had 
taken place before Pultowa, in one of which Charles 
received a wound from a shot, which shattered the 
bone of his heel, and obliged him to keep his bed for 
a few days, after undergoing a painful surgical 
operation. While in this situation, he received in- 
telligence that Peter appeared to be meditating a 
general attack ; upon which he ordered his whole 
army to be drawn out from the intrenchments, to 
receive the enemy, and caused himself to be carried 
in a litter. The Swedes commenced the battle, and 
made so vigorous an attack on the Russian redoubts, 
behind which the cavalry was posted, that, in spite 
of a heavy and continual fire from the artillery, they 
carried two of them sword in hand. The Russians 
acted with great steadiness ; and the Tzar, as major- 
general, drew up his army in a regular and masterly 
style. 

The troops were now everywhere engaged, and 
the battle became general. The right wing of the 
Russians was commanded by General Bauer, the left 



178 MEMOIR OF 

by Prince Menzikoff, and the centre by Field-marshal 
Scherematof. The action lasted two hours. The 
two sovereigns seemed to feel that they were en- 
gaged in a battle which was to decide the fate of 
Russia or Sweden. They were everywhere in the 
front of their respective armies, exposing themselves 
to the very hottest of the fire. Charles, with a pistol 
in his hand, was carried in his litter from rank to 
rank ; one of its bearers was killed by a cannon-ball, 
which shattered the litter in pieces. Another con- 
veyance was instantly provided ; or, as Voltaire says, 
he then ordered his men to carry him upon their 
pikes. Peter received several shots in his clothes, 
one through his hat, and several pierced his saddle. 
Menzikoff had three horses shot under him. 

At length the Swedes gave way on every part, 
and fell into confusion. " The invincible Swedes," 
says Peter, "turned their backs, and their whole 
army, cavalry as well as infantry, was overthrown, 
with very little loss on our part."* The rout now 
became general, and the slaughter dreadful. There 
remained on the field of battle, and near the redoubts, 
nine thousand two hundred and twenty-four of the 
enemy, besides two or three thousand prisoners, 
chiefly cavalry, that were taken in the action. 
Among them were Major-generals Stackelberg and 
Hamilton, Marshal Renschild, the Prince of Wirtem- 
berg, and many other officers. 

" Thus," continues the Tzar's journal, " by the 
favour of the Almighty, this victory, to which there 
are few to be compared, was obtained with little 
trouble and little blood, over the proud King of 
Sweden, by the prudent and gallant conduct of his 
majesty in person, and by the valour of his chiefs 
and soldiers : for, in this affair of such great import- 
ance, his majesty exposed himself, for his subjects 
and his country, without sparing his own person, like 

* J'' umal de Pierre le Grand. 



PETER THE GREAT. 179 

a true and great captain. It may be added, that in 
this great combat, our first line only was engaged ; the 
second was not brought up till the action was over."* 
On the evening of this proud day, Peter dined 
under his tent, in company with all his general and 
field-officers, and invited, also, the Svv^edish general 
officers who had been made prisoners in the battle, 
Count Piper, the Swedish minister, and the two 
secretaries of the king, Cederholm and Diben, w^ho 
had all surrendered themselves. In the course of 
the entertainment, Peter took occasion to drink a 
health " to his masters in the art of war." Rens- 
child inquired whom his majesty was pleased to 
honour with such a title ? " Yourselves, gentlemen, 
the brave Swedish generals," rephed the Tzar. 
" Then," asked the general, " has not your majesty 
been somewhat ungrateful in dealing so hardly with 
your masters ]" Peter was not displeased at the 
compliment, and, turning to the general, inquired 
what number of men the King of Sweden might 
actually have had in the field on that memorable 
day ; and, on being told by Renschild that he had 
about nineteen thousand Swedes, and ten or eleven 
thousand Cossacks, — " How is it possible," said the 
Tzar, " that a prince so prudent as the King of 
Sweden could have thought of leading such a handful 
of men into a country unknown to him, and especially 
into such a country as this !" To which Renschild 
replied, " It was not always that he and his brother 
officers were consulted respecting the operations of 
the war, but as faithful subjects they all felt it was 
their duty not to oppose, but to obey, their king." 
The Tzar was so much pleased with this reply, that 
he took his own sword from his side, and, presentmg 
it to Renschild, requested he would wear it as a 
token of esteem, not alone for his valour, but also 
for his fidelity to his sovereign.! 

* Jonmal de Pierre le-Grand. 

t Voltaira Neetesaranot. Mottley; &c. 



180 MEMOIR OF 

He made many anxious inquiries after the fate of 
Charles ; and, as none of the prisoners could give 
any information of what had befallen him, he ordered 
a strict search to be made among the slain, to ascer- 
tain whether this unfortunate prince had not fallen 
in the battle, more particularly as he had been told 
that his litter was found shattered in pieces. 

Charles, however, having perceived that the day 
was lost, and that his only chance of safety was to 
retire with the utmost precipitation, suffered himself 
to be mounted on horseback, though some say in 
Meyerfeldt's carriage with twelve horses, and with 
the remains of his army under Marshal Lewenhaupt, 
fled to the southward, to a place called Perewolochna, 
situated in the very angle formed by the junction of 
the Vorskla with the Borysthenes, — the exact point 
to which the Tzar had supposed he would retreat in 
the event of a defeat. Here, accompanied by the 
traitor Mazeppa, and a few hundred of his followers, 
Charles swam the latter great river, and proceeding 
over a desolate country, in danger of perishing with 
hunger, at length reached the Bog, where he was 
kindly received by the Turkish pasha, who afforded 
him refreshments and boats to pass that river. The 
Tzar says, however, that the king and the traitor 
Mazeppa, having presented themselves at Otchakow, 
near the mouth of that river, the pasha could not 
permit them to enter the city, for fear of displeasing 
the sultan ; and that they therefore continued their 
march till they reached Bender on the Dniester. 
Here, as Voltaire observes, Charles gave a proof of 
that unreasonable obstinacy which occasioned all 
his misfortunes in Turkey, and led to a series of 
adventures more becoming an Orlando Furioso than 
a wise prince — of which this lively writer has given 
a narrative that appears to partake more of romance 
than of truth. The proof he gave of his obstinacy 
at Bender was this, that when advised to write to the 
grand vizier, according to the custom of the Turks, 



PETER THE GREAT. 181 

he said it was beneath his dignity. The same ob- 
stinacy placed him successively at variance with all 
the ministers of the Porte ; in short, says Voltaire, 
" he knew not how to accommodate himself either 
to time or place."* 

But, to return to the shattered remains of the 
Swedish army, left at Perewolochna, under General 
Lewenhaupt, and which are stated, in the Tzar's 
journal, to amount to about fourteen thousand men. 
On the evening of the day of battle, Lieutenant- 
general Prince Galitzin, at the head of the regiments 
of guards, and Lieutenant-general Bauer, with the 
dragoons, amounting together to about ten thousand 
men, were sent in pursuit. On the 30th, that is, 
three days after the battle, Menzikoff, with about 
nine hundred men, came in sight of the enemy, posted 
at the foot of the mountains on the right bank of the 
Bor^^sthenes, near Perewolochna, and sent imme- 
diately to summon Lewenhaupt to surrender, repre- 
senting to him that all retreat and hope of safety 
were cut off. The Swedish general, sensible that 
this was the case, did not hesitate to conclude and 
sign a treaty the same day, by which his whole army 
were declared to be prisoners of war, and all the 
artillery, with the military chest, the chancellory, 
and the standards, were surrendered to the victors. 
The generals here taken were Lewenhaupt, Schlip- 
penbach, Rosen, Stakelberg, and Creutz. " Thus,'^ 
says the Tzar, " by the favour of God, all this famous 
army of the enemy, which, during its stay in Saxony, 
had been the terror of Europe, fell into the hands of 
his majesty ; for not a man of it escaped — all but a few 
hundreds, which passed the Dnieper with the king, 
having surrendered themselves to the victorious 
arms of Russia.*"! 

Though Peter greatly admired the gallant spirit 
of his brother Charks, as he used to call him, yet, 

* Voltaire, &c. I JqutiviI de Pierre le Graiiicl 

Q 



182 MEMOIR OF 

when he looked upon the Swedish prisoners, the fate 
of so many unhappy men touched him sensibly, and 
he more than once spoke of the indignation he felt 
at the conduct of a prince who could sacrifice, in so 
wanton and useless a manner, to his ambition, so 
many brave and faithful subjects, of whom he ought 
to have been the father and protector. At the same 
time, whatever Peter's feelings may have been at 
the sight of so many gallant men, reduced to such a 
deplorable condition, they did not prevent him from 
giving orders that the greater part of them should be 
sent to Siberia, then a wild, uninhabited, and barren 
country. To this measure we must mainly ascribe 
those improvements which have now made a large 
portion of Siberia, not only habitable, but a desirable 
place of residence ; but it is melancholy to reflect 
that, for the mere gratification of the personal vanity 
of one man, so many thousand lives should have been 
wantonly sacrificed, and that of the 80,000 brave 
fellows who marched in full health and vigour to the 
slaughter, not one in one thousand, probably, was 
destined ever to return to his country and his friends. 
Charles had not even the plea of state necessity or 
expediency to urge for this Quixotic expedition ; he 
would seem, indeed, to have forgotten that he had a 
country: Glory was the mistress he courted and 
fought for — but she deserted him, and fled to his 
more fortunate and more deserving rival ; for Peter, 
to say the least, had his country's weal at heart. 

All Europe felt the effects of the battle of Pul- 
towa. The Saxons called out loudly for revenge on 
a prince who had pillaged and plundered their coun- 
try. Their elector, Augustus, issued his protest 
against an extorted abdication, and was impatient to 
reascend the Polish throne. The Poles were now 
ready to assist him, and King Stanislaus declared 
himself equally ready to abdicate, if required to do 
so. Sweden was in a state of the greatest consterna- 
tion, supposing for a long time her king to be dead, 



PETER THE GREAT. 183 

and under this uncertainty was incapable of comhig 
to any resolution. The influence of this great battle, 
if we were to believe Voltaire, extended even to 
England ; but here he is under a mistake as to facts. 

In 1708 it happened that the Russian ambassador 
Matveof was arrested in London for debt, and, after 
a long correspondence between the two courts, the 
parliament passed an act to prevent in future the 
arrest of an ambassador for debt ; and Queen Anne 
sent Mr. (afterward Lord) Whitworth to Russia, in 
the character of an ambassador extraordinary, with 
an explanatory and apologetical letter to the Tzar, 
solely on that occasion ; but, says Voltaire, after the 
battle of Pultowa it became necessary to give a more 
public satisfaction to the Tzar ; and Mr. Whitworth 
opened his speech with the following words, ^^'Most 
high and most mighty emperor V — the acknowledgment 
was sufficient, and the title of emperor^ which the 
Queen had not given him before the battle of Pultowa, 
plainly showed the degree of estimation to which 
he was now raised in Europe." Now, Voltaire 
must have known, when he wrote this, that Queen 
Anne neither did nor could know what had hap- 
pened at Pultowa when Mr. Whitworth was des- 
patched from England. Her letter to the Tzar is 
dated in the early part of August ; the battle was 
fought on the 9th July, and intelligence, at that time, 
was not conveyed from the lowest part of the Uk- 
raine to Moscow, and from Moscow to England, in 
something less than a month. Besides, the Tzars, 
before Peter's time, had been not unfrequently ad- 
dressed by the title of emperor. 

There can be no doubt that Peter gained a degree 
of reputation from the victory of Pultowa which 
greatly facilitated the conquests that immediately 
followed it. The first was that of Elbing, the Swe- 
dish garrison of which surrendered themselves, and 
an immense quantity of guns, mortars, and ammu- 
nition, into the hands of the besiegers. The Tzar, 



184 MEMOIR OF 

before the winter was over, had in zested Wyberg, 
the chief town of Carelia, on the northern shore of 
the Gulf of Finland. Riga was next besieged ; but 
a dreadful pestilence was then raging in this part 
of Livonia, which is said to have swept away from 
eight to nine thousand Russians ; the Tzar makes 
his loss amount to 9800 men ; and on this account 
they turned the siege into a blockade. About the 
middle of July, 1710, the garrison capitulated, on 
condition that all the Livonian officers and soldiers 
should remain in the service of the Tzar, as na- 
tives of a country that had once belonged to Russia, 
but had been wrested from her by the predecessors 
of Charles XII., and stripped of its ancient privi- 
leges. The surrender of Pernau and Revel com- 
pleted the conquest of Livonia. Count Stremberg, 
the governor of Riga, stated that the pestilence 
had destroyed little short of 60,000 persons among 
the huddled population of that city and its suburbs. 
But the most striking and immediate effect of this 
victory was that which it produced on the Poles, 
whose great anxiety seemed to be the speedy re- 
moval of King Stanislaus, to make room for the 
reinstatement of King Augustus, who was equally 
ready to resume the throne he had been compelled 
to abdicate. With this view he hastened to Thorn, 
to make his reconciliation with Peter for his former 
defection, where the meeting took place privately 
in the king's yacht. Irritable as the temper of the 
Tzar generally was, his disposition was very far 
from being implacable ; in the present instance he 
had the gratification of restoring a monarch to his 
crown, and the political motive of including Poland 
with the kings of Denmark and Prussia in a treaty 
against Sweden, the object of which was to recover 
from Charles all the conquests of Gustavus Adol- 
phus — Russia setting up pretensions to her ancient 
possessions of Livonia, Ingria, and a part of Finlahd ; 
Denmark laying claim to Scania ; and Prussia to 
Pomerania. 



PEIER THE GREAT. 185 

After this interview the Tzar proceeded to Prus- 
sia, where he had a meeting with the king, at Mari- 
enwerder, and completed a treaty with him, in his 
own person ; for Peter had seldom occasion for the 
assistance of an ambassador in his negotiations. 
With his usual activity he then turned to Riga, to 
give directions respecting the future government of 
that place ; thence to Petersburg, to inspect the 
progress of, and give the necessary orders respect- 
ing, the buildings and arrangements of his new and 
favourite capital, which he never lost sight of. A 
letter in his own hand appeared among the family 
papers of Apraxin, dated from the camp at Pultowa, 
at nine in the evening of the day of battle, which 
has this paragraph : " At length, thank God, the 
foundation-stone of Petersburg is laid." While at 
Petersburg he laid down the keel of a large ship of 
war, and then set off for Moscow, where he found 
preparations making for the exhibition of a splendid 
triumph, by which the grateful citizens meant to ex- 
press their sense of the distinguished and important 
services rendered by him to his country. 



CHAPTER IX. 

The Battle of the Pruth. 



Charles XII. had no sooner re^ached Bender, and 
experienced the hospitality of the Turks, than he 
despatched Poniatowsk, to Constantinople, with in- 
structions to use all the m&ans he could devise to 
induce the vizier to prevail on Ins master to com- 
mence hostilities against the Russians, taking care 
to impress strongly on Ms mind a conviction that 
object would be to invade same part of 
Q2 



186 MEMOIR OF 

the grand seignior's dominions. He conceived that 
such a representation would produce its effect on 
the Turks ; and accordingly he was soon informed 
by his ambassador, that he had succeeded so well 
with the vizier as to leave no doubt of his forthwith 
publishing a declaration of war against Russia, for 
that this minister had told him, *' he would take him 
(Charles) in one hand, and his sword in the other, 
and conduct him to Moscow, at the head of 200,000 
men." This piece of gasconade, however, whether 
of Poniatowski or the vizier, did not avail the King 
of Sweden, who learned, with great mortification, 
that Count Tolstoy, the. Tzar's envoy, was in such 
high favour at the Sublime Porte, that he had de- 
manded, and was all but promised, that the traitor 
Mazeppa should be delivered up to Peter, as Charles 
had demanded, and obtained possession of, the unfor- 
tunate Patkul ; but the old hetman of the Cossacks 
escaped this fate by taking a disease which hastened 
his death. 

But the object which the King of Sweden was 
unable to effect through the means of one vizier 
was brought about by a new one, in conjunction 
with the khan of the Crimean Tartars, the latter of 
whom had become apprehensive, and not without 
reason, of so formidable a neighbour as had now got 
possession of Asoph. The Porte, too, had taken 
umbrage at the appearance of Russian ships on the 
Palus-Mceotis and the Black Sea, and was alarmed 
at the building of so many ships on the Don, and at 
the extensive works carrying on in the harbour of 
Taganroc. It seems this khan of the Crimea had 
paid a visit to Charles at Bender, where such a state- 
ment of complaints and grievances was concocted 
between them as, on being presented by Poniatow- 
ski, tended greatly to awaken the sultan's jealousy 
of the intentions of the Russians. The khan pro- 
ceeded to Constantinople, and demanded an audi- 
ence of the sultan. He confirmed all that was stated 



PETER THE GREAT. 187 

in the memorial, and added that the Russians were 
committing all kinds of ravages on the frontiers of 
the Turkish provinces, murdering innocent believers, 
and plundering them of their property ; and con- 
cluded w^ith a request that the great council should 
forthw^ith be called together, in order to ascertain 
their sentiments on the imminent dangers that 
threatened the whole Ottoman empire. The coun- 
cil met accordingly, and, without examining the 
question, decided that war was advisable, and the 
sooner it was declared the better. The question 
was then put to the mufti, whether it was lawful to 
go to war, according to the Koran. The reply of 
the mufti was short and pithy, — " The law answers, 
it is necessary." Upon this Count Tolstoy, the 
Tzar's ambassador, was arrested in the public 
streets of Constantinople, and committed, together 
with his domestics, to the castle of the Seven 
Towers. 

" Never," says Voltaire, " was sovereign more 
offended in the person of his ministers than the 
Tzar of Muscovy. Within the space of a few 
years, his ambassador at the court of London was 
imprisoned for debt ; his plenipotentiary in Poland 
and Saxony was broken on the w^heel by order of 
the King of Sweden; and his minister to the Porte 
was seized and imprisoned at Constantinople, like a 
common malefactor." 

The Tzar lost not a moment in making prepara- 
tions for a Turkish campaign, by ordering a division 
of his army to advance from Poland to Moldavia. 
The Field-marshal Scherematof was directed to 
march from Livonia with another body of troops 
towards the same quarter. Admiral Apraxin was 
to take command of the fleet at Asoph and on the 
Black Sea; Admiral Cruys, a Dutchman, to guard 
the coasts of Livonia in the Baltic ; and Prince 
Menzikoff was left at the head of affairs in Peters- 
burg, Peter^ having made these dispositions, set 



188 MEMOIR OF 

out for Moscow to arrange matters for the adminis- 
tration of the government during his absence in the 
approaching campaign. He appointed a regency of 
eight senators, among whom were Prince P. GaUtzin 
and Prince M. Dolgarouki, who proceeded to the 
church of the Assumption, and there, in presence of 
his majesty, the senate, and the principal authorities, 
took an oath to fulfil their duties with honour, in- 
tegrity, and activity ; to be faithful to the sovereign 
and the state, to observe strict justice in all matters 
public and private, and lastly, to act with good faith 
as well with regard to the levying of money and 
men as in all other things relating to the interests 
of the state. At the same time, as some inconve- 
nience was felt in the army, from the necessity of 
raising persons of low description to the rank of 
officers, while the sons of the nobility studiously 
avoided the service, Peter sent an ordinance to the 
senate, directing them to assemble all those of a 
certain age, and to enrol them among the conscripts. 
He gave orders, also, that the army of Livonia, 
which had suff"ered so much from the plague, should 
be forthwith completed by recruits, to be sent to the 
frontier of Wallachia.* 

Having completed his arrangements at Moscow, 
he caused it to be declared solemnly in public, on 
the 6th March, 1711, that her majesty the Tzarina 
Catharine Alexiuna, was the true and legitimate 
wife of the Emperor Peter I.f Voltaire says he 
had privately married the young captive of Marien- 
burg in 1707, but that the marriage was only made 
public the same day on which he set out with his 
consort, in order to measure his strength with the 
Ottoman Porte. It is frequently difficult to recon- 
cile the different dates given by different writers of 
the Tzar's s-tory. Captain Bruce, who was himself 

* Journal de Pierre le Grand. 
t Memoirs of Peter Henry Bruce. 



PETER THE GREAT. 180 

present on the spot, says, *' On the 17th (May) we 
arrived at Warsaw, and at Jaweroff on the 29th, 
where we found the Tzar and Tzarina, and there 
they were privately married, at which ceremony 
the general (Bruce) was present, and upon this oc- 
casion he was made master-general of the ordnance, 
in the room of the Prince of Melita, who died a 
prisoner in Sweden. General Bruce was at this 
time knight of four orders, namely, St. Andrew, the 
White Eagle, the Black Eagle, and the Elephant ;" 
and here he adds, *' I received my commission as 
captain in the artillery, and engineer."* Peter I. 
will probably be considered to know more correctly 
than Peter Bruce the day on which, and the place 
where, he was married. It is possible, however, 
that having here joined the army, he may have 
thought it right to repeat the declaration before made 
in Moscow. 

Be that as it may, Catharine accompanied her 
august husband to the war in Turkey. This extra- 
ordinary woman proved herself in all respects, and 
under all circumstances, superior to her sex, as well 
as to her birth and her early misfortunes. To the 
Tzar she was all in all ; she stood in the same rela- 
tion to him that the kind-hearted Josephine did to 
Napoleon ; both had been the mistresses of the men 
they married, and also of others before them ; both 
possessed the art, or rather the natural and persua- 
sive manners, to smooth down the asperity, assuage 
the anger, and allay the excitements to which their 
respective husbands were but too prone ; they both 
ascended an imperial throne ; but here the parallel 
ends — the one was most undeservedly cast aside, 
on the pretence of political expediency : the other 
maintained her high station, and succeeded as solo 
autocratrix of all the Russias. The cheerfulness 
and liveliness of Catharine's temper, the sweetness 

* Memoirs of Peter Henry Bruce. 



190 MEMOIR 0^ 

and complacency of her disposition, her mild and 
affable behaviour, her unremitting attention and un- 
wearied assiduity, her agreeable manners and con- 
versation, had acquired such an ascendency over 
the mind of Peter, that he was never so happy as 
when she was near his person. It has been men- 
tioned that the Tzar was subject to that particular 
species of spasmodic affection which has been called 
cataleptic : whenever this happened, and Catharine 
was within call, she was always sent for ; and such 
was the fascination of her presence, that, from the 
moment his eye caught her smihng face and his ear 
was greeted with the soft accents of her voice, the 
muscles began to relax, his agony was composed, 
his mind became tranquil, and in a short time 
" Peter was himself again ;" just as the sweet tones 
of David's harp had the power to draw out from Saul 
the evil spirit that tormented him. She attended 
him in all his travels and his most hazardous expe- 
ditions, sharing his fatigues and soothing his cares, 
— in fact, she became necessary to his health, his 
comfort, and even to his existence. 

General Gordon says, " She was a very pretty, 
well-lookt woman, of good sense, but not of that 
sublimity of wit, or rather that quickness of ima- 
gination, which some people have believed. The 
great reason why the Tzar was so fond of her was 
her exceeding good temper ; she never was seen 
peevish or out of humour ; obliging and civil to all, 
and never forgetful of her former condition ; withal 
mighty grateful."* Many a wretch escaped the 
effects of the Tzar's wrath by her interposition. 
"Catharine," says Voltaire, "saved more backs 
from the knout, and more heads from the block, 
than General Le Fort had ever done." Great indeed 
must have been the merit of this woman, who, 
having risen to the most elevated station from an 

i * Gordon's History of Peter the Great. 



PETER THE GREAT. 191 

obscure and almost unknown origin, maintained her 
lofty position without incurring the envy, hatred, or 
even jealousy of those over whom it was her destiny 
to rule. 

*' Catharine," says Coxe, who cites from compe- 
tent authorities, " maintained the pomp of majesty 
united with an air of ease and grandeur ; and Peter 
frequently expressed his admiration at the propriety 
with which she supported her high station, without 
forgetting that she was not born to that dignity. 
She bore her elevation meekly, and was never, as 
Gordon asserts, forgetful of her former condition. 
When Wurmb, who had been tutor to Gluck^s chil- 
dren, at the time that Catharine was a domestic in 
the same family, presented himself before her, after 
the public solemnization of her marriage with Peter, 
she said, ' What ! thou good man, art thou still 
alive ] I will provide for thee ;' and gave him a 
pension. She was also no less attentive to the 
family of her benefactor Gluck, who died a prisoner 
at Moscow : she pensioned his widow, made his son 
a page, portioned the two eldest daughters, and ap- 
pointed the youngest a maid of honour.'''* 

At Sorokat the Tzar joined the main body of the 
army, which is described by Bruce to have consisted 
of five divisions of 6000 men each, commanded by 
Marshal Scherematof ; the first was the Tzar's own 
division, the second General Weyde's, the third 
Prince Repnin's, the fourth General Hallard's (or 
Allard's), and the fifth General Reutzel's ; in all 
30,000 foot, attended by a very numerous train of 
artillery. Thirty thousand dragoons had been de- 
tached to destroy a fortress and magazine, erected 
by the Turks upon the Dniester, a httle above Ben- 
der ; besides these, 50,000 Calmuck Tartars and 
20,000 Cossacks were on their march to join the 

^ Coxe's Travels in Russia. 



192 MEMOIRS OF 

army, which would then amount to 130,000.* None 
of these, however, arrived, and the whole of the 
Russian army on the Pruth did not exceed, but 
rather fell short of, 40,000 men,—- a considerable 
corps under General Renne having crossed to the 
eastern side of Moldavia, upon the river Sireth. 

His majesty, being now resolved to march without 
waiting for the rest of his forces to join, issued a 
general order for all the women who attended the 
army to be sent away : the Tzarina, however, was 
not thus to be disposed of ; she insisted on accom- 
panying his majesty, and she knew well she would 
not be refused. Her husband, apprehensive of ex- 
posing her to a danger which every day became 
more menacing, wished her to return ; but Catharine 
considered this solicitude of Peter as an ajffront to 
her affection and her courage. She urged her hus- 
band in such strong terms that Peter found it impos- 
sible to deprive himself of her company.f The 
soldiers w^ith joy beheld her on horseback at the 
head of the army, for she rarely used a carriage. 
Her presence gave encouragement and diffused 
alacrity among the troops ; she was always ready 
to send refreshments and assistance to the sick, 
whether officers or private soldiers. The general 
officers, knowing her influence with the Tzar, peti- 
tioned her to obtain the same liberty for their wives 
that they might attend her majesty, which was also 
granted. After this, the wives of the other officers, 
conceiving themselves equally entitled to the indul- 
gence, prevailed on the good-natured Catharine to 
intercede for them, which she readily undertook to 
do, and the result was that they all went, notwith- 
standing the prohibitory order. " This circum- 
stance," says Bruce, " although it considerably aug- 

* Memoirs of Peter Henry Bruce. 

t Journal de Pierre le Grand I 



PETER THE GREAT. 193 

merited the train of oiir baggage, proved in the end 
a very fortunate one." He might well say so — it 
proved the salvation of the Tzar, his army, and per- 
haps of Russia — all of which were placed in immi- 
nent peril by the misplaced confidence of Peter and 
the incautious rapidity of his movements. 

Peter proceeded from Sorokat towards .Jassy, the 
capital of Moldavia, having entered into a secret en- 
gagement with Brancovan, Prince of Wallachia, who 
not only undertook to join the Tzar with his whole 
force, but to provide his army abundantly with pro- 
visions and forage. Whether he was a traitor, or 
meant to act with good faith, was never brought to 
the test ; for the sultan, having been informed of 
his intended revolt, had deprived him of his princi- 
pality : and having some suspicion of the fidelity of 
Mavrocordato, who was the Hospodar of Moldavia, 
the sultan deposed him too, and appointed Cantimir 
Prince or Hospodar of Wallachia, who was directed 
to proceed forthwith, with orders to seize Branco» 
van, under colour of friendship, or on any other pre- 
tence, and send him, dead or alive, to Constantino- 
ple ; and, at the same time, to throw a bridge over 
the Dniester, to facilitate the passage of his army to 
oppose the Russians. Cantimir, being a Christian, 
had experienced how little faith was to be expected 
from the Turk, and as a Christian prince, he felt 
bound in honour, and for the cause of the Christian 
religion, to forsake that of the infidel, and make an 
offer of himself and his principality to the Tzar. 
Peter, however, having been deceived by Brancovan, 
was not disposed to place much confidence in the 
sincerity of Cantimir He had waited three days at 
Jassy for the expected supphes of men and provis- 
ions promised by Brancovan ; but finding that the 
envoy of that Hospodar only answered him with un- 
ceasing compliments and ceremonies, and having 
reason to suspect the honesty of his master, he be- 
gan to think that he had placed himself pretty raucH 
R 



194 



MEMOIR OF 



in the same condition with his brother Charles, when 
invited into the Ukraine by Mazeppa. 

Something, however, was necessary to be done. 
His army had been brought into a wild and barren 
country, destitute of provisions and forage. The 
sw'trms of locusts that obscure the face of the sun 
when in flight, and cover the whole surface of the 
ground when at rest, had eaten up every blade of 
grass, and every green herb ; there was no water 
but what the river afforded ; their magazines were 
nearly exhausted, and the army considered itself be- 
trayed and surrounded by enemies ; and, though 
Cantimir had proffered to join him, he honestly admit- 
ted that his Moldavian subjects were attached to the 
Porte, and hostile to the Russians. In this disastrous 
situation, Peter had, at least, the satisfaction to iind 
that not a man deserted nor a murmur escaped from 
his army. 

The Russian soldier has always sustained the 
character which was formed under Peter. " He 
will not," says a writer, who knew them well, " fall 
back one step while his commander bravely keeps 
his ground ; he contents himself with extremely lit- 
tle pa}^ and with very slender diet, and is always 
cheerful ; hungry and thirsty, he traverses the heavy 
sands of the deserts under the load of his accoutre- 
ments v/ithout murmur or complaint ; executes every 
command ; reckons nothing impossible or too diffi- 
cult; does everything that he is ordered, without 
shunning any danger ; and is inventive of a thousand 
means for accomplishing his design."* 

With such men the Tzar was on the eve of en- 
countering an immensely superior force in point of 
numbers. The enemy was close at hand, for the 
grand vizier, Baltaji Mehemet, having understood 
that the Russian army had arrived at Jassy, imme- 
diately put his troops in march, and crossed the Dan- 



♦ Tooke's View of the Russian Empire. 



PETER THE GREAT. 195 

libe at the head of 100,000 men. In marching along 
the Pruth he deputed the Count Poniatowski to wait 
on the King of Sweden at Bender, and invite him to 
pay him a visit and inspect his army ; but Charles 
would not condescend to such a step, but insisted 
upon the grand vizier visiting him first. On Ponia- 
towski apologizing for Charles, the vizier, turning to 
the Khan of the Tartars, observed, " This is just 
what I expected, that the proud infidel would behave 
in this manner." 

Peter was about the same time passing the Dniester, 
where a council of war was held in General Rruce's 
tent, and Prince Cantimir's letter was read. The 
Tzar declared his intention to march forward to 
meet the enemy, without waiting the junction of the 
rest of the troops ; all the generals expressed their 
approbation of the measure, except General Hal- 
lard, who said nothing. The Tzar, observing his 
silence, ordered him to declare his sentiments, and 
to give his opinion freely ; the general replied, 
that as the council were so unanimous, he never 
would have made any objection, had not his majesty 
insisted on his declaring his sentiments ; he then 
frankly told the Tzar he was very much surprised 
that the King of Sweden's misfortune did not serve 
as a sufficient warning; for that prince had been 
misled by the advice of the traitor Mazeppa, and he 
could not help thinking their present state was a 
similar one. The Prince of Moldavia, he said, has 
already disappointed us ; and, for any security we 
have, the Prince of Wallachia may do the same ; 
although he should mean well himself, yet he may 
want the power to serve us ; for it is to be feared 
that his troops, who have long been used to the 
Turkish government, will not enter into his senti- 
ments.* 

The general was but too good a prophet. The 

* Bruce's Memoirs. 



^ 



196 MEMOIR OF 



march, however, was resolved on; "and we set 
out," says Captain Bruce, " the same night, to avoid 
the intense heat of the day, and continued to march 
for three nights through a barren, desert heath, with- 
out a drop of water all the way, which was severely 
felt both by man and beast. On the 18th June, we 
arrived at the river Pruth, where we lost a number 
of our baggage-horses by their drinking too plenti- 
fully of the water. We passed the river on the 19th, 
near Jassy, the capital and residence of the Prince 
of Moldavia. At this place Prince Cantimir joined 
us in person, with very few attendants, both the 
Wallachian and Moldavian troops having left him, for 
fear of the Turks. We continued our march down 
the Pruth till the 21st, when we met a prodigious 
swarm of locusts, which, at their rising, overshad- 
owed the whole army, like a cloud ; they had not 
only destroyed the grass of the fields, but also the 
tender bark and leaves of the trees : here again we 
lost a number of our carriage-cattle for want of 
forage. It was very remarkable that the locusts 
never left our army, and we no sooner pitched our 
tents than they came down and covered the whole 
camp. We tried, by firing of cannon and small 
arms, and burning trains of powder on the ground, 
to drive them away, but all in vain ; they attended us 
on our march along the river, till the 27th, when we 
discovered the Turkish army crossing the Pruth. 
Upon this General Janus was detached, with a body 
of troops and twelve pieces of cannon, to dispute 
their passage ; but he was too late, for half their 
army had passed before he could get up to them, so 
that he found it prudent to retreat to the main body 
of the army. It was very surprising that we had 
not the least intelligence of so numerous an army, 
which consisted of not less than 200,000 men, till 
they were actually within sight of us."* 

♦ Memoirs of Peter Henry Bruce. 



PETER THE GREAT. 197 

This bold manceuvre of the Turks made it neces- 
sary for the Tzar to form his line of battle, and 
bring them to an immediate engagement ; but they 
kept without the range of cannon-shot, endeavour- 
ing with their numerous cavalry to surround the 
Russians, and cut them off from the river : but in 
this they failed ; for Peter, seeing what their inten- 
tion was, ordered his troops to fall back, so as to 
extend along the right bank of the Pruth. The dif- 
ferent corps of the army were all separated in the 
dark, and as a great number of their horses had per- 
ished, it was found expedient to burn many of their 
baggage-wagons, to prevent their falling into the 
enemy's hands. These fires sufficiently indicated 
to the Turks the state of confusion in which the 
army of their opponents was, "which," says Bruce, 
"afforded them a fine opportunity to destroy our 
whole army, and they might easily have done it 
with a small part of theirs ;" but it seems they were 
busily employed in intrenching themselves. At 
daybreak the Tzar collected his army, and formed it 
into a hollow square, the river serving for the fourth 
side, and the wagons were formed into an enclosure 
within for the protection of the ladies. 

Opposite to the Russians, on the other side of the 
river, the Tartars of the Crimea had taken up their 
ground, who annoyed them so much, that whenever 
a party attempted to water at the river a few pieces 
of cannon were constantly playing upon them. 
Thus the Russian army was completely surrounded 
by Turks on one side and Tartars on the other, with 
the river Pruth between them and the latter, which 
operated both ways ; first, as an advantage, to enable 
them to extend their square, and prevent a junction 
of the two enemies' armies, and secondly, as a dis- 
advantage, in preventing a safe retreat for the Rus- 
sians, a measure to which it was but too likely they 
must be driven. Peter was now, in fact, in a more 
critical situation than that of Charles XII. at Pul- 
R2 



198 MEMOm OF 

towa, being hemmed in, as that prince was, by a 
superior army, more distressed for want of provis- 
ions, and deceived, like him, by the promises of an 
ally who had not the power to fulfil them. 

Thus surrounded, the Turkish army attacked them 
for three days and three nights successively. " The 
Turkish infantry," says the Tzar, " although in dis- 
order, fought with great ardour ; and, numerous as 
it was, if it had attacked our front and flanks, we 
should no doubt have been in a dangerous position ; 
for the enemy's army infinitely surpassed in numbers 
our troops, which consisted only of 31,554 infantry, 
and 6,692 cavalry, of which the greater part was 
dismounted. But as they attacked us only on one 
side, we were able to sustain this by fresh troops. 
Besides, having eight guns, eight-pounders, and some 
field-pieces, which kept up a rapid fire in aid of our 
musketry, a dreadful slaughter was made in this 
dense mass of the enemy ; for the Turks since ad- 
mitted that there perished in this action seven thou- 
sand men."* Bruce says nearly the same thing; that, 
fortunately, the enemy attacked only one side of 
their square at a time, which enabled them to relieve 
their wearied troops from time to time as they be- 
came harassed with fatigue, and it also enabled them 
to make use of their large train of artillery, which 
did great execution ; and the more so as the Turks 
had not been able to bring up their artillery, except 
the few pieces on the opposite side of the Pruth. 
The Russians, however, were placed in a desperate 
condition ; no longer able to exist in so dangerous 
and destructive a position, all retreat entirely cut 
off, the Tzar saw that nothing was left but either by 
engaging in an unequal combat, to obtain a victory, 
to fight to the very last man, or, lastly, to surrender 
to the Turks. The last alternative seemed, indeed, 
to be the only resource ; for, on the fourth day, the 

♦ Jtwinal de Pierre le Grand. 



PETER THE GREAT. 199 

Tzar was informed that all their ammunition was 
spent to a few charges. On receiving this intelli- 
gence, Bruce says, Peter ordered all the officers of 
the army, with a number of select men, to mount on 
horseback and attend his person ; his intention being 
to force his way through the Turkish army in the 
night, and to go through Transylvania and Hungary. 
Bruce is an honest but a loose writer, and what he 
here states is highly improbable. It would be 
utterly inconsistent with Peter's character to have 
entertained, for a moment, the idea of leaving his 
brave soldiers, his beloved Catharine, and the rest 
of the ladies, to the mercies of the Turks, which 
must have been the case had such a plan been adopted. 
Bruce, no doubt, refers to a resolution of the gen- 
erals at a council of war. Voltaire's account of his 
behaviour at this critical period is much more con- 
sistent : — 

" All the relations," says this historian, " and me- 
moirs of the times unanimously agree that the Tzar, 
fluctuating in his mind whether he should renew the 
engagement the next day with the enemy, and ex- 
pose his wife, his army, and his empire, and the 
fruit of all his labours, to a danger which seemed 
almost insuperable, returned to his tent oppressed 
with anxiety, and labouring under convulsions, to 
which he was sometimes subject, and which his 
present solicitude contributed to increase. Thus 
resigning himself a prey to the most torturing dis- 
quietude, and unwilling that his distracted condition 
should be known, he gave orders that nobody should 
be permitted to enter his tent. Then it was that he 
experienced the good effect of having permitted his 
wife to accompany him in this expedition. Cath- 
arine entered his tent, notwithstanding his prohibi- 
tion." 

Whether the resolution taken by this true heroine, 
who had faced death during all these engagementa, 



i 



200 MEMOIR OF 

and had rarely left the side of her husband, was 
with that husband's consent, as Voltaire would in- 
timate, — or whether Bruce, who agrees in what 
most writers previous to the appearance of his me- 
moirs have stated, be right in supposing it to have 
been taken unknown to her husband, and in conse- 
quence of the hopeless condition of the Russian 
army, — is not very material. It is agreed, on all 
hands, that Catharine, foreseeing the hazard that 
would attend any further attempt or delay, and the 
loss and disgrace that were likely to fall on her hus- 
band's arms and army, hit on an expedient which 
saved the honour of the one, and averted the inevi- 
table destruction of the other. She knew that an 
oriental prince or his representative never grants an 
audience without the offer of a present. She there- 
fore got together the few jewels and trinkets she had 
brought with her in this expedition, and went round 
the camp to collect ail the money, plate, and jewels, 
in addition to her own, for which she gave her own 
receipt, and obligation to pay the respective owners 
on her return to Moscow ; and, having thus acquired 
a valuable present, she despatched the Vice-chan- 
cellor Shaffiroff and an officer with a letter from 
Marshal Scherematof to the grand vizier ; and the 
result was, after some negotiation, the concluding 
a treaty of peace. 

Peter, in his journal, takes notice of the letter, but 
makes no mention of Catharine's negotiation ; but 
there can be no doubt of the fact, which indeed is 
alluded to in his own declaration, when, in 1723, he 
caused the Empress Catharine to be crowned. " She 
has been," he then said, "of great assistance to us 
in all times of danger, but particularly at the battle 
of the Pruth, where our army was reduced to two- 
and-twenty thousand men." If there be no error in 
the Tzar's estimate, the battle of the Pruth must 
have been one of the most destructive on record. 



PETER THE GREAT. 201 

He tells us that on the first day of the eng-agement 
his army consisted of 31,554 infantry, and 6,692 cav- 
alry ; he must therefore have lost on the Pruth 
16,246 fighting men. In the same journal we are 
assured that the loss of the Turks exceeded his ; for 
as their attacks v^ere made in a confused and tumult- 
uous manner, and his men stood firm, all their shot 
told.* 

The overture for peace was not, however, imme- 
diately accepted. No answer being received from 
the grand vizier for some hours, it was apprehended 
that the bearers of the letter had been killed or de- 
tained by the Turks ; a second officer was therefore 
despatched with a duplicate of the letter, and in the 
mean time a council of war was held, at which Cath- 
arine assisted ; the result was as follows, and signed 
by ten general officers : — 

" Should the vizier not accept of the considera- 
tions offered ; should he insist on our laying down 
our arms, and surrendering at discretion ; it is the 
unanimous opinion of all the generals and ministers 
that an attempt be made for breaking through the 
enemy." In consequence of this resolution a trench 
was thrown up round the baggage, and the Russians 
had advanced within a hundred paces of the Turkish 
army, when at length the grand vizier proclaimed a 
suspension of arms. 

It was not altogether the precarious position of 
the Russian army on the Pruth that determined the 
vizier's assent to a cessation of arms ; he had re- 
ceived intelligence just then that the corps com- 
manded by General Renne on the river Sireth, in 
Moldavia, had advanced close to the Danube, where 
he had taken the town and castle of Brahilow, and 
laid them in ashes ; he knew, too, that the Tzar, had 
also another body of troops advancing from the fron- 
tiers of Poland. The object of the vizier was there- 

" * Journal de Pierre le Grand. * 



202 MEMOIR OF 

fore to send back to Russia the victorious troops on 
the Danube, to recover Asoph, to exclude the Tzar 
from all entrance into the Palus Moeotis and the 
Black Sea, and to demolish the harbour of Taganroc ; 
to prevent the Tzar, in future, from concerning him- 
self with the Poles and the Cossacks, and to obtain 
for the King of Svyreden a free and undisturbed pas- 
sage home to his own kingdom. These were the 
terms he proposed, to all of which the Tzar agreed ; 
and the Vice-chancellor Shaffiroff and Major-general 
ScherematofF, son of the marshal, were sent to Con- 
stantinople as hostages for the fulfilment of the 
treaty. After which the whole army were supplied 
by the Turks with abundance of provisions. 

The vizier pressed very much that Prince Can- 
timir should be delivered up to him, as Patkul had 
been by Augustus to the King of Sweden, but this 
was disdainfully rejected by the Tzar. In his letter 
to Vice-chancellor Shaffiroff he thus expresses him- 
self : " I will rather cede to the Turks all the coun- 
try as far as Cursk ; I shall still have some hopes 
of recovering it ; but my word once forfeited, is irre- 
coverable — it must not be violated. Honour is all 
we have peculiar to ourselves ; renouncing that is 
ceasing to be a monarch." 

Peter, in his journal, admits that this expedition 
against the Turks was very rashly undertaken ; that 
he first set about it for the honour of Christianity, 
and on the promises of the faithless Hospodar of 
Moldavia, — promises that were only the words of 
Judas — a man who betrayed him to the Turks, and 
laid a snare for his destruction; "but," says he, 
^' divine justice most certainly performed a miracle 
on the occasion, in saving us from that inevitable 
danger ;" and he adds that, " by the effect of this 
same divine justice, all the traitors came to an un- 
happy end."* 

* Journal de Pierre le Grand. 



PETER THE GREAT. 203 

" The King of Sweden," says Voltaire, " was now 
reduced to the mean shift of caballing at the Otto- 
man court. A king who had made kings is busied 
in contriving means that memoirs and petitions, 
which the ministry would not receive, might be de- 
livered to the sultan. All the artiiices and intrigues 
which a subject would make use of to supplant a 
minister in his sovereign's esteem, Charles practised 
against the Vizier Mehemet and all his successors. 
Sometimes application was made to the Sultan Va- 
lide by a Jewess ; sometimes a eunuch was the mes- 
senger ; at last was found a wretch who, mingling 
himself among the grand seignior's guards, acted the 
madman with the view that, by drawing the notice 
of the sultan, he might give him a memorial from 
the king. But the result of all these intrigues was, 
that Charles had the mortification to see himself de- 
prived of his thaim^ or pension, which he daily re- 
ceived from the Porte's generosity, amounting to 
fifteen hundred livres, French. The grand vizier, 
instead of the thaim. transmitted him an order, in the 
softened form of advice, to quit Turkey." 

" Charles," he continues, " was more determined 
than ever to stay, still flattering himself that he 
should lead an Ottoman army into Poland and Rus- 
sia. The issue of his obstinacy, in the year 1714, is 
known to all the world ; how with his secretaries,, 
valets, cooks, and grooms, he fought against an army 
of janizaries, spahis, and Tartars ; how he was a 
prisoner in the country where he had enjoyed the 
most generous hospitality ; and how, after a stay of 
five years in Turkey, he returned to his own king- 
dom in the disguise of a courier. If there was any 
rationality in his conduct, it must be owned to have 
been of a diff'erent kind from that of other men."* *'I 
see," said Peter, with a deep sigh, on hearing of his 
conduct towards the Turks, "I see that God hasaban- 

» Voltaiie. Life of Charles XII. 



204 MEMOIR OF 

doned him, since he carries his ingratitude so far as 
to attack his benefactors."* In plain truth, the 
whole conduct of Charles, after the battle of Pul- 
towa, was that of a madman. 

The spot, where Peter was engaged in this de- 
structive battle, was not more than sixty or seventy 
miles from Bender, where his rival brother, Charles 
XII. had taken up his abode ; and it is well authen- 
ticated that there were in the Ottoman army, in the 
midst of the battle, two of the king of Sweden's 
officers. Count Poniatowski and General Sparre ; 
that these generals strongly urged the grand vizier 
not to light, but continually to harass the Rus- 
sians ; to cut them off from all water and supplies 
of provisions, and thus oblige them either to sur- 
render or to perish ; but that the vizier was deter- 
mined to bring the war to the issue of a battle, the 
result of which he could not doubt, from the vast 
superiority of his numbers ; that they still pressed 
him not to hazard a general action with troops, 
however inferior in numbers, which were so supe- 
rior to his in discipline ; and that the vizier got 
angry, which was the chief cause of his attacking 
the Russians the first day in the rear, under General 
AUard, who, with 8000 men, stood his ground for 
three hours against, 150,000 Turks, and obliged them 
to retire, with the loss of 7000 men. Such was the 
effect of discipline acquired since the battle of 
Narva, where the Russian soldiers were no better 
than, and probably not so good as those of the 
Turks.f 

As soon as the treaty was concluded, Charles 
hastened to the vizier, who, recollecting his haughti- 
ness at Bender^ sent two pashas to meet him, but 
received him himself near the door of his tent. 
Charles commenced the conversation by upbraiding 

* Life of Peter the Great. ^ 

t JtJUnal de Pierre le Grand. t /WdL 



PETER THE GREAT. 205 

him for not taking the Tzar prisoner, when he had 
him in his power ; but the vizier coolly asked, '* Had 
I taken the Tzar, who would have governed his 
empire V adding, " All kings should not leave their 
homes." This, if true, would have been sufficiently 
mortifying to Charles ; but the conversation that 
passed is more probably stated by Bruce. After 
reproaching the vizier for not taking the Tzar a 
prisoner to Constantinople, Charles said that, if he 
would now give him 20,000 of his troops, he would 
yet recover the opportunity. " God preserve us," 
said the vizier, " from breaking a treaty of peace 
without any reason, as 1 have already accepted 
hostages for the performances of it." Poniatowski 
being present, repeated the same thing, but the 
vizier was inflexible, and observed it would be a 
violation of that part of the treaty which provides, 
" that the king of Sweden may return into his own 
dominions, through the Tzar's territories, with a 
strong convoy of Turks, after which, if he pleases, 
he may make peace with the Tzar. The king, on 
hearing this, looked full at the grand vizier and 
laughed in his face, without making any answer ; 
and turned short on his heel, tore the vizier's robe 
with his spur, mounted his horse, and rode off 
highly displeased with the interview."* 

" Thus," says Voltaire, " all the satisfaction 
Charles reaped from his long journey was, to tear 
the grand vizier's robe with one of his spurs; 
whereas the vizier, who might have made him re- 
pent of this indignity, overlooked it, and herein 
showed himself much greater than Charles. If amid 
the blaze and tumult of this monarch's life, any 
thing could have brought him to see how much 
grandeur is subject to the reverse of fortune, it is, 
that at Pultowa a pastrycook had made his whole 
army lay down their arms ; and that at the Pruth, 

* Brucie's Memoirs. 

s 



206 MEMOIR OF 

both the Tzar's fate and his own had be€n decided 
by a wood-cleaver — this Vizier Baltagi Mehemet 
having been a wood-cleaver in the seraglio, as his 
name signifies ; and, instead of being ashamed of it, 
he accounted it an honour. So different are the 
Eastern manners from ours."* 

Bruce, Avho was sent express to Constantinople,, 
relates the following meilancholy story : " At our 
setting out (from the Pruth) Colonel Pitt had the 
misfortune to lose both his wife and daughter, beau- 
tiful women, by the breaking of their coach wheel ; 
by this accident they were left so far in the rear,. 
that the Tartars seized and carried them off. The 
colonel addressed himself to the grand vizier, who 
ordered a strict inquiry to be made, but to no pur- 
pose. The colonel, being afterward informed that 
they were both carried to Constantinople, and pre- 
sented to the grand seignior, obtained a pass, and went 
thither in search of them ; and, getting acquainted 
with a Jew doctor, who was physician to the se- 
raglio, the doctor told him there had been two such 
ladies as he described lately presented to the sultan ; 
but that when any of the sex were once taken into 
the seraglio, they were never suffered to come out 
again. The colonel, nevertheless, tried every ex- 
pedient he could devise to recover his wife, if he 
could not get both, till becoming outrageous by re- 
peated disappointment, and very clamorous, they 
shut him up in a dungeon ; and it was with great 
difficulty he got released, by the intercession of 
some of the foreign ambassadors at the Porte ; and 
he was afterward told, by the Jew doctor, that they 
idd both died of the plague."! 

These barbarians had too long been suffered to act 
as the scourge of Southern Europe, but Russia v/as 
the power destined, at no great distance of time, to 
wipe off the disgrace by the most ample vengeance. 

• Voltaire's Hist. f Bruce's Memoirs. 



PETER THE GREAT. 207 



CHAPTER X. 

The Tzar's Naval Victory over the Swedes — Rejoicings— A 
Russian Entertainment — Death of the Consort of Alexis— 
The Tzarina Catharine brings Peter a Son — Strange Rejoi- 
cings — Progressive Improvements at Petersburg. 

As soon as intelligence of the treaty with Russia 
had reached Constantinople, the vizier's conduct 
was highly applauded, and great rejoicings, by order 
of the sultan, took place. Tolstoy, the Russian 
ambassador, was immediately released from the 
Seven Towers, and Shaffiroff and ScherematofF, the 
two hostages, were received with such honours as 
the Turk ever condescends to bestow upon infidels, 
and a guard of Janizaries was given for their pro- 
tection. 

Peter, on his part, lost no time in ordering his 
army to march back by the way of Jassy, followed 
by a large body of Turkish troops, which were 
sent by the vizier, most probably to watch the 
motions of the Muscovites, though ostensibly to 
hinder the roving Tartars from molesting them. 
Conformably to the terms of the treaty, Peter 
caused, without delay, the fortresses of Samara 
and Kamienska to be demolished ; but it required a 
considerable time to prepare for the surrender of 
Asoph and Taganroc, owing to the separation of 
the stores and vessels belonging to the Turks, and 
those that had been sent thither by the Russians 
subsequent to the capture. The sultan grew im- 
patient at delay, and dismissed the vizier. The 
party of Charles, supported by the Khan of the 
Tartars, and by the French ambassador, once mor' 



208 MEMOIR Ot 

gained the ascendant, and there seemed to be 
every likelihood of a renewal of hostilities. Asoph 
however was at length restored, and the fortresses 
were demolished ; yet the grand seignior was per- 
suaded that he ought not to be satisfied with the 
treaty. Peter therefore thought it most politic, 
under present circumstances, to authorize his am- 
bassadors to sign another treaty, by which he con- 
sented to withdraw his troops from Poland within 
three months ; but at the same time he stipulated 
that Charles should be required immediately to 
withdraw from Turkey and return to his own domin- 
ions, instead of remaining there to foment broils 
among Christian powers. 

Peter, on his return from this unfortunate cam- 
paign, found his health so much impaired, that he 
thought it necessary to proceed to Carlsbad, to 
drink the waters; and from hence he issued his 
orders for attacking the Swedish province of Pome- 
rania, and to blockade Stralsund ; being determined 
to leave no part of Germany in the possession of 
the crown of Sweden. From Carlsbad he proceeded 
to Dresden, where his son, the Tzarovitz Alexis 
Petrovitz, at this time in his twenty-second year, 
was waiting his arrival. They went together to 
Targow, where preparations had been made for the 
marriage of Alexis with the Princess of Wolfen- 
buttel, sister to the Empress of Germany, consort 
of Charles VI., an accomplished young lady of 
eighteen years of age. The marriage was cele- 
brated in the palace of the Queen of Poland. The ob- 
ject which Peter would seem to have had in view, 
in promoting this alliance, was the hope of bringing 
back this unfortunate son to a sense of what he 
owed to himself, as the legitimate successor to the 
throne, and to his father, to whom he had been 
guilty of every species of disobedience. Captain 
Bruce says that the Tzarovitz was entirely given 
up to low sensual pleasures and mean vicious com. 



PETER THE- GREAT 209 

pany, and had no desire at all to marry ; nor had 
any other view at present than an endeavour to 
shun the danger he w^as in of forfeiting his succes- 
sion to the crown ; and the princess, whose amia- 
ble manners and engaging accomplishments de- 
served a better fate, entirely missed her road to 
happiness.* 

Catharine was not at the marriage, having been left 
at Thorn. Though considered fully as the legitimate 
Tzarina, she had not been formally acknowledged as 
such, and German pride, or the German ceremonial, 
might not have allowed her a place suitable to her 
dignity as the spouse of Peter ; and as his majesty 
was exceedingly punctilious on this point, he deemed 
it most expedient to avoid any question being mooted 
on the subject, and that the Tzarina should not be 
present. After the ceremony he joined Catharine 
at Thorn, and they then proceeded, by the way of 
Elbing, Koningsberg, Mittaw, and Riga, to Peters- 
burg, where they arrived on the 29th of December, 
1711. One of the first steps which Peter took after 
his arrival at his new capital, was to declare his in- 
tention to celebrate anew his own marriage, which 
he had publicly announced at Moscow and to the 
army. Accordingly, on the 26th of February, 1712, 
his majesty'' s old wedding was solemnized with great 
splendour and rejoicing, with fireworks and illumi- 
nations. 

These rejoicings being concluded, Peter, with his 
usual activity, employed himself in forwarding his 
various plans and improvements ; new ships were 
launched, and others laid down ; the admiralty was 
extended ; the foundry for casting cannon was 
finished; canals were planned and ordered to be 
dug ; new roads were opened ; warehouses were 
built ; an exchange planned ; and encouragement 
held out for the building of dwelling-houses of a 

♦ Memoir (A P. H. Bruce, 
S2 



210 MEMOIR OF 

more substantial kind than those hitherto con- 
structed. He directed that the senate should be 
removed from Moscow to Petersburg; and it be- 
came obvious that his design was to make the latter 
the capital of the empire. 

But as the prosperity and permanent security of 
this new city would mainly depend on still further 
humbling Sweden, he determined to carry the war 
into that country, with the view of stripping her of 
every possession that could annoy or endanger St. 
Petersburg ; while Charles, with his habitual pride 
and obstinacy, was quarrelling with the Turks at 
Bender, on whose charity he was subsisting. Peter 
had formed a league with Denmark and Saxony, and 
their united armies entered Pomerania. Menzikoff, 
with 30,000 men, was ordered to join the allied army, 
and Peter set out with the Tzarina, and proceeded 
to Stralsund, which he blockaded with a large force ; 
having left also 10,000 men before Stettin. Count 
Steinbock, who now commanded the Swedish army 
of 11,000 or 12,000 men, marched along the Wismar 
road, following the combined troops of Russia, 
Saxony, and Denmark. He soon came up with the 
Danish and Saxon armies, the Russians being three 
leagues behind. The Tzar despatched couriers to 
the King of Denmark, desiring him, on no account, 
to engage the Swedes until his troops could be 
brought up ; but the Dane, not wilhng to share the 
honour of a victory, of which he had made himself 
secure, attacked them near a place called Gadebusch, 
and was completely beaten before the Russians could 
reach the field of battle. 

Steinbock was a brave and intelligent officer, but a 
man totally destitute of feeling, and as obstinate and 
obdurate as his master. Fresh from his victory at 
Gadebusch, he proceeded to the little town of Altona, 
situated close to the city of Hamburgh, a place in- 
habited by a peaceable people, who obtained a live- 
lihood generally by the exercise of different branches 



m 



PETER THE GREAT. 211 

of trade and manufacture, and who had never taken 
up arms on one side or the other ; notwithstanding 
which, he set fire to the town in the night, and 
reduced it to a heap of ashes. Many of the innocent 
inhabitants perished in the flames, and others, espe- 
cially the aged, the infirm, and the children, who had 
fled from the conflagration, died with fatigue and 
cold at the gates of Hamburgh. The Tzar pursued 
Steinbock closely, and having witnessed the wretched 
condition of the poor people, whose town had been 
wantonly destroyed, he ordered some thousand rubles 
to be distributed among them . Steinbock had halted 
his army at Frederickstadt ; but the Tzar, putting 
himself at the head of five battalions of his guards 
and some cavalry, attacked him so vigorously that 
he retreated with the main body of his army to 
Tonningen. After this the Russian army went into 
winter-quarters, and the Tzar returned to Peters- 
burg. 

The whole of the year 1713 was spent in battles 
and sieges of various places in Pomerania, and in the 
intrigues of the most cunning and unprincipled self- 
created diplomatist and negotiator that ever existed 
— the famous Baron Goertz, whom Voltaire desig- 
nates as the most crafty and most enterprising of 
men. This man, never at a loss for resources, 
thought nothing too bold, nothing too difficult ; in- 
sinuating in negotiations and daring in his schemes 
— indifferent as to truth or falsehood — he had the 
address to impose on Peter, on Charles, on the kings 
of Denmark, Saxony, and Prussia. It was by his 
advice that Tonningen had opened its gates to the 
Swedish army, while at the same time he assured 
the King of Denmark it was done contrary to his 
advice ; but this did not save the Swedish general, 
Steinbock, from being obliged to surrender himself 
prisoner of war, with eleven thousand men. It was 
agreed that Steinbock, with his officers and men, 
might be ransomed or exchanged. His ransom was 



^12 



MEMOIR OF 



settled at eight thousand imperial crowns ; yet, in- 
considerable as this sum was, that general, for want 
of it, remained a prisoner at Copenhagen until his 
death. 

Before the close of the year 1713, the Elector of 
Hanover had secured Bremen and Verden, of which 
the Swedes had been dispossessed ; the Saxons had 
sat down before their city of Wismar ; Stettin had 
passed into the hands of the King of Prussia ; finally, 
the Saxons were in possession of the Island of Rugen, 
preparatory to the Russians besieging Stralsund, al- 
most the only spot inPomerania now left to Charles 
XII. In the midst of these negotiations and parti- 
tions, the Tzar, having himself dictated the plan of 
the siege of Stralsund, left the rest to Menzikoff and 
the confederates, and returned to Petersburgh, where 
he embarked on board of a ship of 50 guns, built 
from a model of his own, and made sail for Helsing- 
fors, in the Gulf of Finland, followed by 93 galleys, 
60 brigantines, and 50 large flat boats, with sixteen 
thousand land forces;* Great difficulty and no little 
danger, on account of rocks and shoals, were ex- 
perieneed ; but the Tzar, in the capacity of rear- 
admiral, overcame them all. He caused a diversion 
to be made on one part, while the troops landed on 
the other and captured the town. From hence the 
Tzar pushed on and made himself master of Borgo 
and Abo, and the whole line of coast. Abo, the 
capital -of Finland, had a university and a consider- 
able library, which Peter took possession of and sent 
to Petersburg, where a suitable building was put 
in preparation for its reception ; and this was the 
foundation of the present library at Petersburg. 
The Tzar returned to the northern capital, leaving 
the command of his troops with Prince Galitzin, 
who advanced against the Swedes, drove them from 
Tai^arthus, and pursued them to the neighbourhood 



Jourriai de Piene le ^Grand. 



PETER THE GREAT. 213 

of the lake Palkane, forcing them to abandon their 
cannon and baggage. 

Peter did not remain long at his new capital. 
Finding that the Swedes were making great efforts 
to arrest his progress in the Gulf of Finland, and that 
a considerable squadron was fitting out under the 
orders of Admiral Watrang and Vice-admiral Ehrens- 
child, he lost not a moment in assembling his fleet 
at Cronstadt. It consisted of thirty stout ships, most 
of them built in England or Holland, which he or- 
dered from Revel to join the squadron of galleys and 
prames, so called by the Tzar, which amounted to 
70 or 80. Admiral Apraxin was appointed com- 
mander-in-chief, and Peter served under him as rear- 
admiral. They set sail from Cronstadt, and after 
cruising about and collecting the fleet, they fell in 
with that of Sweden, consisting of eighteen or 
twenty large ships of the line, under the orders of 
Admiral Ehrenschild. Peter, being aware that the 
large ships of the Swedes could not approach near 
euough to the island of Aland, on account of the 
numerous rocks and shoals, and being superior to 
the enemy in small vessels, determined on landing 
in the island, which he effected in sight of the 
Swedish fleet, and under fire of their cannon. 
Ehrenschild, in a frigate, led on his galleys to attack 
those of Peter, who was prepared to receive them, 
and poured in upon them so destructive a fire, as to 
cause a dreadful slaughter among the crews. The 
Elephant, a small frigate of 18 guns, which bore the 
flag of the Swedish admiral, was taken, after a gal- 
lant action, which lasted two hours, by boarding, 
together with nine large galleys and several prames, 
carrying altogether 116 guns. The Swedish admiral 
jumped into a boat and endeavoured to escape, but 
he was pursued, and, being wounded, was obliged to 
surrender. He was brought on board the galley 
which the Tzar himself commanded in the action. 
The number of killed was 352, and of prisoners 950 ; 



214 MEMOIR OF 

the number of killed and wounded on the side of 
the Russians was 342. The large ships escaped to 
Sweden ; but such was the consternation, that even 
Stockholm was alarmed for its safety.* 

This action was glorious to Peter and his navy. 
To have himself thus triumphed over the old and 
skilful Swedish officers, and made that fleet, which 
for so long a time had scoured the whole Baltic sea, 
flee before him, could not fail to gratify his most 
ardent hopes, while it raised his reputation for skill 
in naval afl'airs, and made him more than ever re- 
spected by his allies. He returned to Petersburg, 
where an addition to his joy awaited his arrival, by 
the Tzarina's safe delivery of a princess, who died, 
however, about a year after. He celebrated the 
birth of his daughter by a triumphal entry into his new 
capital, and instituted a new order in honour of his 
consort, called the Order of St. Catharine, to per- 
petuate the memory of that love and fidelity which 
she had always manifested for him, and more es- 
pecially in his distressed and critical situation when 
his army was surrounded by the Turks and Tartars 
on the banks of the Pruth. The decoration of the 
order is a medal, encircled with precious stones, 
surrounding the picture of St. Catharine, with the 
motto ^' For Love and Fidehty." The Tzarina could 
alone bestow it on such of her own sex as she might 
think proper ; and the first who had it were her own 
two daughters, the Princess Anne, afterward mar- 
ried to the Duke of Holstein, and the Princess Eliza- 
beth, afterward Empress of Russia ; shortly after 
she bestowed it on the Tzar's three nieces, — Anne, 
Catharine, and Paskovia, the daughters of his brother 
John, and also on the Princess Menzikoff. 

All the galleys of the conquerors and conquered 
came up the Neva, opposite the senate-house and 
the fort, amid the roar of cannon ; after which the 

* Jsurnal de Pierre le Grand. 



PETIR THE GREAT. 215 

men came ashore and marched m grand procession 
to the senate-house. When his majesty reached a 
triumphal arch, all the grandees, senators, and for- 
eign ministers congi*atulated him on his victory. 
The governor of Moscow, in the name of the coun- 
try, complimented his majesty on his gallant con- 
duct, and thanked him for his great and eminent 
services. Among the emblematical representations 
which adorned the magnificent arch was the Rus- 
sian eagle seizing an elephant (in allusion to Ehrens- 
child's ship), with this inscription, '' Aquila non capit 
muscas.^^ The procession proceeded in the same 
order to the fort, where the Vice-Tzar, Romanonof- 
sky, seated on a throne and surrounded by the 
senate, caused Rear-admiral Peter to be called be- 
fore the assembly, and received from him a report 
in writing of the gallant action he had fought ; and 
this being read and considered, he w^as unanimously 
declared Vice-admiral of Russia, which being pro- 
claimed in the assembly, the whole house resounded 
with " Health to the vice-admiral." Peter, having 
returned thanks, immediately went on board his 
galley and hoisted the flag of the vice-admiral. 

After this his majesty, attended by numbers of the 
nobility and officers, went to the palace of Prince 
Menzikoff, where a grand entertainment was pro« 
vided. When the dinner was ended the Tzar, who 
had showed a marked attention to Vice-admiral 
Ehrenschild, addressing the company, said, " Gen- 
tlemen, you here see a brave and a faithful servant 
of his master^ who has made himself worthy of the 
highest rewards at his hands, and who shall always 
have my favour while he is with me, although he 
has killed me many a brave man. I forgive you,^'" 
said he, turning to the Swede with a smile, *-' and 
you may always depend on my good will."^ Ehrens- 
child, having thanked the Tzar, replied, " However 
honourably I may have acted w^ith regard to my 
master, I did no more tloan my duty : I sought death. 



216 



MEMOIR OF 



but did not meet it ; and it is no small comfort to 
me, in my misfortune, to be a prisoner of your ma- 
jesty, and to be treated so favourably, and with so 
much distinction by so great a sea-officer, and now, 
worthily, vice-admiral." 

The Tzar, on this occasion, addressed the follow- 
ing speech to the assembled senators, many of 
whom had not been very favourable to his views of 
reform, nor to the great expense occasioned by 
maintaining a fleet : — 

" My brethren, where is the man among you who, 
twenty years ago, would have conceived the idea 
of being engaged along with myself in building ships 
here on the Baltic, and in settling in these regions 
conquered by our fatigues and bravery "? — of living 
to see so many brave and victorious soldiers and 
seamen sprung from Russian blood, — and to see our 
sons returning home accomplished men from foreign 
countries 1 Historians place the seat of all sciences 
in Greece ; whence being expelled by the fatality 
of the times, they spread into Italy, and thence were 
dispersed all over Europe ; but by the perverseness 
of our ancestors, they stopped short in Poland. The 
Poles as well as the Germans formerly groped in 
the same darkness in which we have hitherto lived, 
— but the indefatigable care of their governors at 
length opened their eyes, and they made themselves 
masters of those arts, sciences, and social improve- 
ments which Greece once boasted of. It is now 
our turn, if you will only seriously second my de- 
signs, and add to your obedience voluntary know- 
ledge. I can compare this transmigration of the 
sciences to nothing better than the circulation of the 
blood in the human body; and my mind almost 
prognosticates that they will, some time or other, 
quit their abode in Britain, France, and Germany, to 
come and settle, for some centuries, among us ; 
and afterward perhaps return to their original home 
Hi Greece. In the mean time I earnestly recom 



PETER THE GREAT. 217 

mend to your practice the Latin saying, Ora et labora; 
and in that case, be persuaded, you may chance, 
even in your own lifetime, to put other civiUzed na- 
tions to the blush, and raise the glory of the Russian 
name to the highest pitch."* 

The senators and the whole assembly applauded 
this speech. A round of entertainments were now- 
given by the superior ofiicers of the government ; 
from all which the Tzarovitz: thought fit to absent 
himself, though regularly invited by General Bruce, 
"who," says Captain Bruce, " sent me several times 
to inform him of his majesty's displeasure at his non- 
appearance ; but the old excuse, — w^ant of health,-— 
served on every occasion." It seems that this way- 
ward young man, to avoid appearing in public, either 
took physic or let blood, — always making an excuse 
that his want of health would not allow him to at- 
tend ; " when, at the same time," says Bruce, " it 
was notoriously known that he got drunk in very 
bad company, where he used constantly to condemn 
all his father's actions. On the present occasion, by 
way of punishment, the Tzar ordered him, being 
only a sergeant of grenadiers, to take his place on 
tne right, with his halbert on his shoulder, when a 
company of that regiment was ordered to attend one 
of these entertainments. The princess, his consort, 
happening to see him from a window march past, as 
she thought, in a degraded situation, was taken ill 
and fainted. The Tzar, on hearing this, immediately 
went to her, explained to her that he himself had 
gone through the lowest ranks of both land and sea 
service, till he reached what he now was, a general 
in the one and a vice-admiral in the other ; but he 
told her, with his usual good-nature, that he had just 
procured for him from the Yice-Tzar, an ensign's 
commission in the guards, and that he came to giv# 
her joy on her husband's promotion. 

* Voltaire. Nestesuranoi, Mottley, (StiC, 
T 



218 



MEMOIR OF 



The Tzar was so delighted with his sea victory, 
and so fully satisfied of the great importance of es- 
tablishing a naval force on a grand scale, that he 
ordered several ships of the line to be laid down im- 
mediately, so that, in the spring of the year 1715, he 
might have a fleet of fifty large ships, with an in- 
creased number of galleys and other vessels, to 
enable him to make a descent on Sweden, and even 
flattered himself he should be able to take Stock- 
holm. It is incredible with what rapidity a ship of 
the line, from a thousand to twelve hundred tons, 
was run up and completed for launching ; several of 
them were fully equipped in the course of a twelve- 
month. 

Petersburg now began to assume the consequence 
as well as the appearance of a great capital ; and 
vast numbers flocked thither from Moscow and other 
interior towns, seeing that the seat of commerce 
would eventually be established there. The Tzar 
had now become almost universally popular. De- 
sirous of assimilating the manners of his subjects, as 
he had already done their dress, to those of other 
European nations, he encouraged frequent social 
assemblies : he even ordered his senators and his 
generals alternately to open their houses twice a 
week for these assemblies, at which conversation, 
cards, and dancing might be resorted to ; they were 
to commence at eight and end at eleven o'clock ; 
they were open to all of the rank of gentlemen, for- 
eigners as well as natives, and equally so for their 
wives and daughters. This was a great step gained 
in civilization ; and the ladies gladly profited by the 
indulgence, and rapidly improved in their manners, 
conversation, and dress. 

The balls and entertainments of the Tzar had 
hitherto always been given at Prince Menzikoff' s 
palace, — but his own summer and winter palaces 
being finished in the course of the year 1715, he now 
entertained his guests at one or other of these ; ex- 






PETER THE GREAT. 219 

cept on grand festivals and extraordinary occasions, 
when the entertainments were held at the senate- 
house. At these public dinners several tables were 
laid out, appropriated to the several classes of per- 
sons, as senators, clergymen, officers of the army 
and navy, merchants, ship-builders, and others ; the 
Tzarina and the ladies at a separate table, and gene- 
rally above stairs. These entertainments commonly 
ended with hard drinking. After dinner the Tzar 
used to go from one rooni and table to another, con- 
versing with every set according to their different 
professions or employments, — more particularly with 
the masters of foreign trading vessels, making minute 
inquiries into the several branches of their traffic, 
and marking down in his pocket-book, as usual, 
whatever occurred to him as worthy of notice. "At 
these dinners," says Bruce, " I have seen the Dutch 
skippers treat him with much familiarity, calling him 
Skipper Peter, with which he seemed to be highly 
delighted."* 

^ But the most extraordinary account of the manner 
in which the Tzar entertained is given in a manu- 
script, in the handwriting of Dr. Birch, among the 
Sloane papers in the British Museum : — 

" There are twenty-four cooks belonging to the 
kitchen of the Russian court, who are all Russians ; 
and as the people of that nation use a great deal of 
onion, garlic, and train-oil in dressing their meat, 
and employ linseed and walnut oil for their provis- 
ions, there is such an intolerable stink in their kitchen 
that no stranger is able to bear it, — especially the 
cooks being such nasty fellows that the very sight 
of them is enough to turn one's stomach. These 
are the men who in great festivals dress about 70 
or 80 or more dishes. But the fowls which are for 
the Tzar's own eating, are very often dressed by his 
grand Marshal Alseffiof, who is running up and down 

* Memoir of P. H. Bruce, Esq. 



220 MEMOIR OF 

vdth his apron before him among the other cooks till 
it is time to take up dinner, when he puts on his fine 
clothes and his full-bottomed wig, and helps to serve 
up the dishes. 

" The number of the persons invited is commonly 
two or three hundred, though there is room for no 
more than about a hundred, at four or five tables. 
But as there is no place assigned to anybody, and 
none of the Russians are willing to go home with an 
empty stomach, everybody is obliged to seize his 
chair and hold it with all his force, if he will not have 
it snatched from him. 

" The Tzar, being come in and having chosen a 
place for himself, there is such scuffling and fighting 
for chairs that nothing more scandalous can be seen 
in any country. Though the Tzar does not mind in 
the least, nor take care for putting a stop to such 
disorder, pretending that a ceremony and the formal 
regulations of a marshal make company eat uneasy, 
and spoil the pleasure of conversation. Several for- 
eign ministers have complained of this to the Tzar, 
and refused to dine any more at court. But all the 
answer they got was, that it was not the Tzar's busi- 
ness to turn master of the ceremonies and please 
foreigners, nor was it his intention to abolish the 
freedom once introduced. This obliged strangers 
for the future to follov/ the Russian fashion, in de- 
fending the possession of their chairs by cuffing and 
boxing their opposer. 

" The company thus sitting down to table without 
any manner of grace, they all sit so crowded to- 
gether that they have much ado to lift their hands 
to their mouths. And if a stranger happens to sit 
between two Russians, which is commonly the case, 
he is sure of losing his stomach, though he should 
have happened to have ate nothing for two days be- 
fore. Carpenters and shipwrights sit next to the 
Tzar, but senators, ministers, generals, priests, 
sailors, buffoons of all kinds, sit pell-mell without 
any distinction. 



PETER THE GREAT. 221 

" Tlie first course consists of nothing but cold 
meats, among* which are hams, dried tongues, and 
the hke, which not being hable to such tricks as 
shall be mentioned hereafter, strangers ordinarily 
make their whole meal of them, without tasting 
any thing else, though, generally speaking, every 
one takes his dinner beforehand at home. 

" Soups and roasted meats make the second 
course, and pastry the third. 

" As soon as one sits down, one is obliged to drink 
a cup of brandy ; after which they ply you with great 
glasses full of adulterated tookay^ and other vitiated 
wines, and between whiles a bumper of the strong- 
est English beer, by which mixture of liquors every 
one of the guests is fuddled before the soup is served 
up. 

. '' The company being in this condition, make such 
a noise, racket, and holloing, that it is impossible to 
hear one another, or even to hear the music which 
is playing in the next room, consisting of a sort of 
trumpets and corpets (for the Tzar hates violins), and 
with this revelling noise and uproar the Tzar is ex- 
tremely diverted, particularly if the guests fall to 
boxing and get bloody noses. 

" Formerly the company had no napkins given 
them ; but instead of it, they had a piece of very 
coarse linen given them by a servant, who brought 
in the whole piece under his arm, and cut off half 
an ell for every person, which they were at liberty 
to carry home with them ; for it had been observed 
that these pilfering guests used constantly to pocket 
the napkins. But at present two or three Russians 
must make shift with but one napkin, which they 
pull and haul for like hungry dogs for a bone. 

" Each person of the company has but one plate 
during dinner; so if some Russian does not care 
to mix the sauces of the different dishes together, 
he pours the soup that is left in his plate either into 
the dish, or into his neighbour's plate, or even under 
T2 



222 



MEMOIR OF 



the table ; after which he licks his plate clean with 
his finger, and last of all wipes it with the table- 
cloth. 

" The tables are each 30 or 40 feet long, and but 
two and a half broad. Three or four messes of one 
and the same course are served np to each table. 
The dessert consists of divers sorts of pastry and 
fruits, but the Tzarina's table is furnished with sweet- 
meats. However, it is to be observed, that these 
sweetmeats are set out only on great festivals, for a 
show^ and that the Russians of the best fashion have 
nothing for their dessert but the produce of the 
kitchen garden (as pease, beans, &c.), all raw. 

" At great entertainments it frequently happens 
that nobody is allowed to go out of the room from 
noon till midnight. Hence it is easy to imagine 
what a pickle a room must be in that is full of 
people w^ho drink like beasts, and none of them 
escape being dead drunk. 

" They often tie eight or ten young mice on a 
string, and hide them under green pease, or in such 
soups as the Russians have the greatest appetites 
to ; which sets them a kecking and vomiting in a 
most beastly manner, when they come to the bot- 
tom and discover the trick. They often bake cats, 
wolves, ravens, and the like in their pastries, and 
when the company have ate them up, they tell them 
what stuff they have been devouring. 

" The present butler is one of the Tzar's buffoons, 
to whom he has given the name of Wiaschi, with 
this privilege, that if anybody else calls him by 
that name, he has leave to drub them with his 
wooden sword. If therefore anybody upon the 
Tzar's setting them on, calls out Wiaschi, as the 
fellow does not know exactly who it was, he falls a 
beating them all round, beginning with Prince Men- 
zikoff, and ending with the last of the company, 
without excepting even the ladies, whom he strips 
of their head clothes, as he does the old Russians 



PETER THE GREAT. 223 

with their wigs, which he tramples upon. On which 
occasion it is pleasant enough to see the variety of 
their bald pates. 

" Besides this employment at the entertainments, 
the said Wiaschi is also surveyor of the ice^ and ex- 
ecutioner for torturing people : on which occasion 
he gives them the knout himself, and his dexterity 
in this business has already procured him above 
thirty thousand thalers, the sixth part of the confis-. 
cated estates of the sufferers being his perquisite."* 

At what time these extraordinary scenes occurred, 
there are no means of ascertaining, as the paper 
is without date ; but the mention of the Tzarina's 
name points to a period subsequent to the marriage 
of Catharine. It is well known that Peter, simple 
and abstemious in his diet as he became towards the 
latter part of his hfe, as well as in the use of wine 
and strong liquors, never ceased to take pleasure in 
seeing his guests enjoy themselves, and encoura- 
ging them to drink frequently, even until they be- 
came intoxicated, and v/as amused with their noise 
and revels. When alone with his Tzarina, he was 
equally moderate in his eating and drinking. When 
only his own family v/as present, his usual dinner 
hour was twelve o'clock. His table was frugal, and 
he ate only of plain dishes, — such as soup with 
vegetables in it, water-gruel, cold roast meat, ham, 
and cheese ; a little aniseed-water before dinner, 
and a cup" of quass, or Russian beer, or m lieu of 
this, a glass of wine. One dish only was served up 
at a time, and in order to have it hot, the dining- 
room was contiguous to the kitchen, from whence 
the dish was received from the cook through a small 
window. At one, he was accustomed to lie down 
and sleep for about an hour : the rest of the after- 
noon and evening were spent in some amusement 

* In Dr. Birch's handwriting. Sloane's MSS. British Mu- 
seum. 



i 



224 MEMOIR OF 

or other, till ten o'clock, when he went to bed, and 
he always got up at four in the morning, summer 
and winter. Between this hour and twelve he tran- 
sacted all his business with his ministers. Although 
he never supped, he generally sat down with the em- 
press and his daughters at table ; and, though now 
grown sober and serious, he still preserved in com- 
pany the gayety of his disposition, his familiarity 
with his inferiors, and his dislike of ceremony. 
Peter never restrained himself through life in put- 
ting in practice, whenever he thought it necessary, 
any of his oddities and eccentricities, most of which, 
absurd and puerile as they might appear to be, had 
each of them an aim at some particular end ; each 
of them had its place on the surface of his sphere 
of action ; and all of them converged to one central 
point, and that point was Russia. 

Besides the coarse and boisterous parties that 
have been described, he had others of a more ra- 
tional nature. He had a garden in Petersburg laid 
out on an island, in which was built a large banquet- 
ing-room. When an entertainment was to be given 
in this garden, it was necessary that the company 
should come in boats ; and in order to accommodate 
the different ranks of his guests, he presented them 
accordingly with yachts, small sailing-vessels, barges 
often or twelve oars, and smaller boats; and these 
means of conveyance were given to them on this 
condition : — that each should keep his vesssel in re- 
pair, and when worn out, build another at his own 
expense. Nor were these vessels to be kept up for 
pleasure alone, or suffered to remain useless ; for on 
a given signal being made for sailing or rowing, the 
proprietors, with their respective crews, were 
obliged to attend, whether to row on the broad 
Neva, or sail down to Cronstadt. In the latter 
case, all the manoeuvres of a fleet were put in prac- 
tice by signals, such as making or shortening sail, 
forming the line, furling sails, &c., by which the 



PETER THE GREAT. 225 

young nobles and gentry acquired a taste for the 
naval service, while they were enjoying the trip as 
an amusement. 

Peter, however, in the midst of all these feasts 
and entertainments, conceived that he had an act of 
justice to perform. The Dutch admiral Kruys, had, 
unfortunately, the preceding year, lost two of his 
. vessels, the Riga and the Wyberg, on the rocks, 
when chasing three Swedish vessels, and had been 
compelled to set fire to the Riga. The Tzar ordered 
him and the captain of the other ship to be tried by 
court-martial, which sentenced him to be shot for- 
neglect of duty and cowardice. Kruys complained 
of the extreme severity of this doom, alleging that 
no other nation, conversant in naval jurisdiction, 
would have passed such a sentence. Some of the 
accounts state that the Tzar, on hearing this, ordered 
copies of the trial to be sent to his minister in Hol- 
land, the admiral's native country, in order to col- 
lect the opinions of the naval ofhcers of that coun- 
try ; and that they pronounced the sentence to be a 
severe, but in strict justice a proper one. The Tzar, 
however, considering his officer more unfortunate 
than culpable, commuted the sentence into banish- 
ment to Olonnetz ; but before he had travelled one 
day's journey towards the place of his exile, his ma- 
jesty not only recalled him, but appointed him one 
of the commissioners of the admiralty ; and thus 
intrusted him with the administration of the civil 
affairs of that navy, the ships of which he did not 
think fit any longer to place under his command. 
Accordingly, he was never employed at sea again, 
but continued to manage the affairs of the navy ou 
shore, which he did with great ability for the re- 
mainder of his days. 

Soon after this a discovery was made, which 
occasioned a very considerable degree of annoyance 
to the Tzar. His majesty having inquired of the 
Dutch merchants whether the trade of his new capital 



226 MEMOIR OF 

was in a flourisliing state, one of them answered, it 
would do very well if his majesty's ministers did not 
monopolize nearly the whole of it. This led to 
further inquiries, when it appeared that not only had 
trade decayed, but that the finances had been em- 
bezzled, the army ill paid, that the revenues were in 
great confusion, and that his principal servants, and 
among others, his favourite Menzikoff, were deeply 
involved. Determined to investigate the whole mat- 
ter, he established a grand inquisition, at the head of 
which was placed General Basil Dolgorouki. Menzi- 
koff, Admiral Apraxin, Kersakof, vice-governor of 
Petersburg, Kijkin the president, and Siniavin, first 
commissioner of the admiralty. General Bruce, 
master of the ordnance, with a great number of 
inferior officers, were implicated in the charges. 
Apraxin, Menzikoff", and Bruce, alleged their ab- 
sence from Petersburg in the field abroad, or at sea, 
so that they could not possibly be aware of the ill 
practices of their faithless servants, or prevent them. 
This appeal was in part admitted ; but the greater 
part of their property was confiscated. Many others 
forfeited their estates, and some of thes^ suffered in 
addition the knout, and those who had no property 
were sent to Siberia. 

Another circumstance occurred shortly after this, 
which occasioned no little grief to the Tzar. The 
unfortunate princess, consort of the Tzarovitz, was 
brought to bed of a son, and died a few days after, 
in the twenty-first year of her age, deeply and sin- 
cerely lamented by the whole court. By the gentle- 
ness of her manners, and the sweetness of her tem- 
per, this amaable princess had endeared herself to all 
who knew her ; but her life had been imbittered by 
the brutal conduct of her husband, who not only 
totally neglected her, but brought into the house his 
mistress, a Finland woman of the lowest extraction, 
of the name of Euphrosyne, or Afrasine, with whom 
and his drunken companions he spent the greater 



PETER THE GREAT. 227 

part of his time. The poor princess refused all 
nourishment and medicine, and entreated the physi- 
cian not to force it upon her, as she had no other 
wish than to die in quiet. Both the Tzar and Tzar- 
ina were greatly afflicted at her loss. Their little 
grandson was named Peter, with the addition of 
Alexiovitz, and became, on the demise of the Em 
press Catharine, Peter II. of Russia. 

The Tzar was busily employed on his works at 
Schlusselburg, when the intelligence of his daughter- 
in-law's confinement reached him: he set out in- 
stantly for his capital, where he was seized with a 
sudden illness, which confined him to his chamber ; 
but on hearing of her alarming state, caused him- 
self to be placed on a chair, moving on wheels, and 
conveyed to her apartment. The interview was 
most affecting. As she took leave of him, recom- 
mending her children to his care and her servants to 
his protection, this stern hero burst into tears, and, 
in an agony of grief, gave her the strongest assur« 
ances, which were faithfully fulfilled, that every 
wish of hers should be accomplished. At midnight 
Uiis amiable sufferer expired. 

An idle report, scarcely deserving of notice, 
except for that which it obtained in France, was 
circulated, and printed in numerous publications, 
that by the connivance of her attendants, this un- 
fortunate princess made her escape to Louisiana, 
married a French sergeant, returned with hmi to 
Paris, and was discovered by Marshal Saxe, who 
procured for her husband a commission in the Isle 
of Bourbon. The story included many other adven- 
tures, equally and utterly destitute of truth. It gave 
rise, however, to two or three impostors, who feigned 
themselves to be the unfortunate Princess of Wolfen- 
buttel, and one of them is supposed to have visited 
England.* 

* Annual Register for 1766. Original in Gentleman's Mag- 
azine. 



228 MEMom OF 

The grief of the court for the death of the prin- 
cess was speedily converted into joy ; for the next 
day after her interment, the Tzarina Catharine was 
brought to bed of a prince, to the unspeakable delight 
of the parents. This young prince was also baptized 
by the name of Peter, with the adjunct of Petrovitz, 
the kings of Denmark and Prussia being his god- 
fathers. On this joyous occasion, a kind of carnival 
was held, which lasted ten days. Splendid enter- 
tainments, balls, and fireworks, followed one another 
in constant succession. At one of the grand din- 
ners, a device of so singular a kind is mentioned by 
several writers, that rude and barbarous as the sub- 
jects of Peter still were, it requires the utmost stretch 
of belief, that such an exhibition could have taken 
place. On opening a large pie, which graced the 
centre of the gentlemen's table, a well-shaped dwarf 
woman stepped out of it ; she made a speech to the 
company, drank their health in a glass of wine, and 
was then removed from the table. On the ladies' 
table, a man-dwarf was served up in the same man- 
ner. Mr. Bruce adds a third " dainty dish," out of 
which sprung a covey of twelve partridges. 

Peter also took this opportunity of general re- 
joicing, to render the office of the patriarch, which 
he had long determined to abolish, and had for some 
years held in a state of abeyance, ridiculous ; and 
this he did from having repeatedly received hints 
from the bishops and others, of the wish of the peo- 
ple to have a patriarch, which he knew was not the 
case. For this purpose he appointed Sotof, his 
jester, or, more properly, his court fool, to perform 
what Voltaire calls the farce of the conclave. This 
" motley," who was in his eighty-fourth year, was 
created mock-patriarch ; tlie bride (for he was to be 
married) was a buxom widow of thirty ; the guests 
were invited by four stutterers, who could barely 
Utter a word ; four fat, bulky, and unwieldy fellows 



PETER THE GREAT. 229 

were selected for running footmen, so gouty as to be 
led by others ; the bridesmen and waiters were all 
lame ; these were meant as so many cardinals ; and 
every member of this sacred college, according to 
Voltaire, w^as first made drunk with brandy. The 
happy couple were dragged to church by four bears 
harnessed to a sledge ; and in this way, with music 
playing, drums beating, bears roaring, and the popu- 
lace hurraing, the well-matched couple were brought 
to the altar, where they were joined in holy wedlock 
by a priest a hundred years old, deaf and blind, who 
was prompted in the ceremony. Voltaire observes, 
that Moscow and Petersburg witnessed three times 
the renewal of this ludicrous ceremony, which ap- 
peared to have no sort of meaning, while in reality 
it confirmed the people in their aversion to a church 
that pretended to a supreme power, and the head of 
which had anathem.atized so many potentates. 
"Thus the Tzar," says he, "by way of jest, re- 
venged the cause of twenty emperors of Germany, 
ten kings of France, and a multitude of sovereigns."* 
During this festival the principal inhabitants of 
Petersburg kept open house, their tables spread with 
cold meat and strong liquors^ so that there was 
scarcely a sober person to be found in the v/hole 
city. On the tenth day the Tzar gave a grand 
entertainment at the senate-house, at the conclusion 
of which each guest was required to drink ofi" a large 
glass called the double-eagle, containing a full bot- 
tle of wine. " To avoid this," says Captain Bruce, 
" I made my escape, pretending to the ofiicer on 
guard that I was going on a message from the Tzar, 
which he believing, let me pass ; I went to the house 
of a Mr. Kelderman, who had formerly been one of 
the Tzar's tutors, and was still in great favour with 
him. Mr. Kelderman followed me very soon, but 
not before he had drank off his double-eagle, and 

* History of the Russian Empire, &c. 
U 



230 



MEMOIR OF 



coming into his own house, he complained that he 
was sick with drinking ; and sitting down by the 
table, laid his head on it, appearing as if fallen 
asleep. This being a common custom with him, 
his wife and daughters took no notice of it; till 
after some time observing him neither to move nor 
breathe, and coming close up to him, we found he 
was dead, which threv/ the family into great con- 
fusion. Knowing the esteem in which he stood 
with the Tzar, I went and informed him of the sud- 
den death of Mr. Kelderman. His majesty's con- 
cern at the event brought him immediately to the 
house, where he condoled with the widow for the 
loss of her husband, ordered an honourable burial 
of the deceased at his own expense, and settled on 
her an annuity for hfe." 

If we were to draw a conclusion, as to the man- 
ners and character of a nation, from the riotous and 
disgusting scenes that are exhibited by the unre- 
strained licentiousness that prevails in such festivi- 
ties as carnivals, when full scope is given to the 
indulgence of the passions, we should certainly 
arrive at a very unfavourable one with regard to the 
Russians at the time of the Tzar Peter. He has 
been blamed indeed for not having put a stop to such 
scenes as these ; but it should be recollected, that 
he had already offended the nobles and the whole 
hierarchy by the many important changes he had 
made and was still making ; he had offended also the 
great mass of the peasantry by forcing them to part 
with their beards, or to pay a tax for the privilege 
of retaining them. He might think it therefore not 
quite prudent to forbid the use of spirituous liquors, 
in a climate too where, taken in moderation, they 
were considered conducive to the preservation of 
health. May he not besides have supposed that, by 
inflicting as a punishment what was before regarded 
as a pleasure, he might hope to lessen the abuse 1 

By the pubhc exhibition of the mock patriarch. 



PETER THE GREAT. 231 

. and the ridicule meant thereby to be thrown on the 
office, the Tzar was accused of intending to bring 
rehgion into contempt, — but Peter had no such in- 
tention. No man had a higher sense of the duties 
which rehgion required — no man more regularly 
performed those duties, — no man had a greater vene- 
ration for the Deity than Peter I. of Russia. He 
never gained or lost a battle that he did not take 
the first opportunity of returning thanks to God ; if 
for victory, ascribing the honour and glory to him 
alone to whom it was due ; if defeat, to express his 
thanks for an escape from the hands of the enemy. 
In all his travels he never failed to attend divine 
service, whether Catholic, Lutheran, or Protestant, 
— even the Quakers' meeting-houses, as we have 
seen. A little trait on his second visit to Holland 
will shortly be noticed, to prove that his devotion 
was not mere ceremony or ostentation : it occurred 
OR a visit he made to the mean lodging he had occu- 
pied eighteen years before at Zaandam. Whatever 
faults, therefore, he might have, and they were many 
and great, a neglect or contempt of religious duties 
was not one of them. 

During his stay at Petersburg in the year 1714, 
and the early part of 1715, he saw his favourite new 
capital flourishing in a high degree. The prohibition 
of goods, imported at Archangel, being sent as here- 
tofore to Moscow, drove the merchants and traders 
of that capital to Petersburg ; the w^hole court also 
removed to the latter. Most of the houses had 
been built of wood, but an order was now given that 
all buildings should be of brick and covered with 
tiles. The superb palace of Peterhoff was in pro- 
gress. He employed about 40,000 people, Russians, 
Swedish, and Finland prisoners, in finishing his dock- 
yard, erecting wharves, building ships, raising forti- 
fications, and other works. Many of these poor 
people fell victims to disease, to cold, and naked- 
ness ; but the humane Catharine distributed winter 



232 



MEBIOIR OF 



clothing and money to such as were most in need 
of them. He built an academy, under the direction 
of a Frenchman named St. Hilaire, in which lan- 
guages, mathematics, fencing, riding, and other 
matters suited to the education of a gentleman 
were taught. He caused the great globe of Got- 
torp, which was given to him as a present by the 
King of Denmark, to be moved on rollers over the 
snow to Riga, and from thence by sea to Petersburg. 
It was made by order of the Duke of Holstein, 
from a design found among the papers of the cele- 
brated Tycho Brahe, by one Andrew Bush, under 
the direction of Olearius. It is a large hollow 
sphere eleven feet in diameter, containing a table 
and seats for twelve persons. The stars are distin- 
guished, according to their magnitudes, by gilded 
nails ; the outside represents the terrestrial globe.* 
Peter also held out encouragement for foreign arti- 
ficers and men of science to come to his capital, 
on promise of supplying them with houses rent- 
free, and exemption from all taxes for ten years. 
He despatched Lange, on commercial objects, over 
Siberia to China ; his engineers were employed in 
laying down maps throughout the whole empire. 

•At this time Petersburg was visited by two am- 
bassadors from the East ; the one from Persia, 
l^ringing with him an elephant and five lions as pres- 
ents for the Tzar ; the other from Mehemet Baha- 
dar. Khan of the Usbeks, to solicit his protection 
against the Tartars ; such was the renown which 
Peter had acquired in these distant countries by his 
great exploits. About the same time the Donski 
Cossacks, v/ho had revolted with Mazeppa, sent an 
embassy to make their submission and implore par- 
don, which was readily granted. There were also 



* Dr. Long, of Pembroke College, Cambridge, caused a 
globe of this kind to be made of eighteen feet diameter, and 
capable of containing thirty persons. 



PETER THE GREAT. 233 

at this time four unfortunate refugees in the new 
capital, — Cantimir, the Hospodar of Moldavia, the 
two sons of Cantecusena, late Hospodar of Walla- 
chia, and Miletetski, Prince of Georgia, who had 
been stripped of his dominions by the Shah of Per- 
sia. All these strangers, together with the native 
and foreign merchants, who flocked to the new capi- 
tal, with the shipping and the dock-yards on the 
Neva, contributed to make Petersburg a busy, bus- 
tling, lively city. 



CHAPTER XL 



Charles XII. returns to Sweden — The Tzar visits Holland, 
France, and Piiissia. 

In the midst of the festivities of Petersburg, 
Charles XII. made his sudden appearance at Stral- 
sund. His strange and outrageous conduct had 
wearied out the patience of the Turk ; and after his 
last mad exploit at Bender,* not surpassed in ab- 
surdity by the most absurd adventure that the fertile 
imagination of Cervantes conceived for the Knight 
of the Woful Countenance, he was no longer left 
at liberty, neither had he the means to repeat this 
or any other of his mad freaks. He wisely, there- 
fore, for once, consented to leave the country, and 
on the 14th November, 1714, made his appearance, 
in disguise, at the gates of Stralsund. 

The first unwise thing he did, after his return, 
was to take Goertz into his confidence, who, to his 
misfortune, obtained a greater sway over his mind 
than Piper ever had ; the second was to ask money 
from the citizens of Stockholm to raise and support 

* Voltaire's Charles XII. 
U2 



234 



MEMOIR OF 



an army of 25,000 men ; and the third, to quarrel 
with the King of Prussia, in particular, and to reject 
all propositions for a negotiation on the part of the 
allies, — of v/hom, from the Elbe to the Baltic, Peter 
was the head and support. These allies either 
wished to retain portions of the Swedish dominions 
which they had obtained during the war, or to ac- 
quire others, most of which had been conquests of 
the great Gustavus. These allies of the Tzar were 
the King of Prussia, the King of Denmark, the 
King of Poland, and the King of England, Elector 
of Hanover. 

Formidable as this host of claimants was, Charles 
succeeded in getting the money from his exhausted 
subjects. " What little they had," says Voltaire, 
"they freely parted with; there was no refusing 
any thing to a prince who only asked to give ; who 
lived as hard as the soldiery, and exposed his life no 
less than they : his misfortunes, his distresses, his 
captivity, his return, affected both his subjects and 
foreigners ; he was blamed, admired, and assisted." 
The same author's estimate of his qualities is very 
just : — " The glory of Charles was quite of an op- 
posite kind to that of Peter : it had not the least 
affinity with the establishment of arte, with legisla- 
tion, policy, and commerce ; it was limited to his 
person : his principal merit was a very extraordinary 
valour ; he defended his dominions with a fortitude 
equal to his bravery, which could not but strike 
nations with respect for him : he had more well- 
wishers than allies."* 

In April, 1715, the Prussians, Danes, and Saxons 
united their forces before Stralsund ; and thus 
Charles, besieged on the shores of the Baltic, had 
only escaped from a foreign prison to be confined in 
one of his own. Towards the end of the year, 
Stralsirnd, reduced to a heap of ruins, surrendered 



* History of the Russian Empire. 



PETER THE GREAT. 235 

'to the King of Prussia ; but Charles, at the risk of 
his hfe, escaped in a small boat, with ten persons 
only, his officers having actually forced him to quit 
the place. He landed at Carlscrona, where he re- 
mained the whole winter, ordering new levies, and 
drawing plans for his future conquests. When his 
friend Decker, v/ho had delivered up the place, came 
before him, the king reproached him for having ca- 
pitulated with his enemies : " I had your glory too 
much at heart," answered Decker, " to hold out in 
a town which your majesty had quitted." 

The Tzar, in the mean time, had conquered all 
Finland, and left an army there under Prince Galit- 
zin. Marshal Scherematof was in Pomerania, with 
14,000 or 15,000 men. Vv^eimar had surrendered on 
capitulation. In Poland were distributed 30,000 
Russians, under Generals Bruce and Bauer. Peter 
had conquered the provinces of Livonia and Estho- 
nia, on the eastern shores of the Baltic, and the 
whole of both the coasts of the Gulf of Finland 
were in his possession. Having, therefore, nothing 
to apprehend on the part of Sweden, he now under- 
took a second tour through Europe, in which he 
was accompanied by his beloved Catharine. He 
visited in succession Stralsund, Mecklenburg, Ham- 
burg, Pyrmont, and returned to Schwerin. From 
thence he went to Rostock, where forty-five of his 
large galleys had arrived, to carry troops to the 
island of Rugen, which being landed, he hoisted his 
flag, and took the command of the galleys, proceed- 
ing with them to Copenhagen. Here he remained 
from two to three months, visiting, with his consort, 
all the places that were deemed worth seeing ; and, 
during this time, the royal guests were splendidly 
entertained by the King of Denmark. 

While the Tzar was on this visit, a British squad- 
ron of ships, under Sir John Norris, and a squadron 
of Dutch ships, commanded by Rear-admiral Grave, 
arrived in Copenhagen roads, each with convoys of 



236 



MEMOIR OF 



several hundred vessels. The Swedes had a large 
force at sea, and Peter proposed to Sir John Norris 
to join the Russian and Danish fleets with the other 
two, and putting to sea, proceed to look out for the 
Swedish fleet. After some discussion, it was agreed 
that the Tzar should hoist his standard on board his 
largest galley, which v^^as manned with 500 men, as 
commander-in-chief of the united fleets : he was 
accordingly saluted, on hoisting his flag, by the flag- 
ships of the other three admirals. They had very 
soon intelligence of the Swedes having put into 
Carlscrona ; and therefore the English and Dutch 
admirals each proceeded with their respective con- 
voys, and the Tzar and the Danes returned to 
Copenhagen. Peter made no scruple to declare 
that he felt it to be the proudest moment of his life 
when he hoisted his flag to command these four 
united fleets.* 

Having taken leave of the court of Denmark, the 
Tzar and Tzarina set out for Hamburg ; from thence 
Peter proceeded alone to Lubeck, and on to Havel- 
berg, where he had a private interview with the King 
of Prussia. He then returned, by the Elbe, to 
Hamburg, but stopped a night at Nymagen, where 
he arrived late, with only two attendants, in a com- 
mon postchaise. Having taken some poached eggs 
and a little bread and cheese, he retired to rest, and 
his companions had a bottle of wine. When start- 
ing, at an early hour in the morning, one of the 
gentlemen asked the landlord what was to pay ? 
" One hundred ducats," was the answer, '^ What !" 



* Sir John IN orris, in one of his despatches, describes the 
Tzar's visit to his ship : "He is pleased to be very curious in 
his inquiries ; and there is not a part of the ship he is not desir 
ous of examining. The improvements he has made, by the 
help of Enghsh builders, are such as a seaman v^ould think 
ahnost impossible for a nation so lately used to the sea. They 
have built three sixty-gun ships, which are every way equ^ t9 
the hest erf that rank in our country." 



PETER THE GREAT. 237 

cried the astonished Russian. " One hundred duc- 
ats," repeated mine host ; '' for my part I should be 
glad to give a thousand, if I was the Tzar of Rus- 
sia." Peter asked the man if eggs were so very 
scarce in that place. " No," said Boniface, " but 
emperors are." 

He arrived at Amsterdam about the middle of 
December, where he v\^as received with every pos- 
sible mark of respect and attention. The Earl of 
Albemarle (Van Keppel) and three of the burgo- 
masters met him on his entry, and the earl addressed 
him in a pompous, flowery speech, in the Dutch 
language. " I thank you heartily," said Peter, 
" though I don't understand much of what you say. 
I learned my Dutch among ship-builders, but the 
sort of language you have spoken I am sure 1 never 
learned." Peter had a great dislike to all kind of 
ceremony. Being invited to dine with some mer- 
chants and builders, they addressed him " 3^our ma- 
jesty," and in speaking made use of ceremonious 
and courtly language. Peter cut short their dis- 
course with, " Come, brothers, let us converse like 
plain and honest ship-carpenters." A servant was 
pouring out a glass of beer for him — '• Give me the 
ca?i," said he, laughing ; '" I can now drink out of 
this jug as much as I like, and nobody can tell how 
much." In this way did he put his old friends at 
their ease. 

The Tzarina had remained at Schwerin, indis- 
posed, being far advanced in her third pregnancy 
since her marriage ; but finding herself soon able to 
travel, she proceeded towards Holland, to join her 
husband. She got no farther, however, than Wesel, 
where she was delivered of a prince, v/ho died the 
next day. It was intended she should pass her con- 
finement in Holland, and the Tzar's old associates 
persuaded themselves it would be most highly grati- 
fying to him if his consort should produce a young 
Pieter van Zaandam, in the midst of his early and 



238 



MEMOIR OF 



honest friends and fellow-labourers. It may be 
imagined with what joy and fondness he was re- 
ceived by the tradesmen, and seamen, and ship- . 
carpenters of Zaandam, among whom he had lived Ij 
so long as their companion. It was no sooner known * 
that his yacht was arrived than the whole quay was 
crowded, and " Welkom, welkom^ Pieter Baas,^^ re- 
sounded from a thousand mouths. A respectable 
female rushed forward to greet him, as he stepped 
on shore. " My good lady," he says, " how do you 
know who I am V " By your majesty being, some | 
nineteen years ago, so frequently at our house and 
table ; I am the wife of Baas Pool." He immediately 
recognised, embraced, and kissed her on the fore- 
head, and invited himself to dine with her that very 
day. So little difference did his old companions find 
in his manners and conduct after a lapse of nineteen 
years, and the various scenes and situations through 
which he had passed ! The only change they 
noticed was his now being able to endure a crowd, 
and to be stared at. His movements were as rapid 
as before, and his eye as piercing as ever. 

One of his first visits was to the little cottage in 
which, some nineteen years before, he had dwelt, 
when learning the art of ship-building ; he found it 
kept up in neat order, and dignified with the name 
of the Princess House. This little cottage is still 
carefully preserved. It is surrounded by a neat 
building with large arched windows, having the ap- 
pearance of a conservatory or green-house, which 
was erected, in 1823, by order of the present Princess 
of Orange, sister to the late Emperor Alexander, 
who purchased it to secure its preservation. In the 
first room you still see the little oak table and three 
chairs which constituted its furniture when Peter 
occupied it. Over the chimney-piece is inscribed, 
Petro Magno 
Alexander, 
and in the Russian and Dutch, 

^'To a Great Man nothing is little, ^^ 



PETER THE GREAT. 239 

The ladder to the loft still remains, and in the second 
little room below are some models and several of his 
working-tools. Thousands of names are scribbled 
over every part of this once humble residence of 
Peter the Great. 

On entering this cottage, Peter is said to have 
been evidently affected. Recovering himself, he 
ascended the loft, where was a small closet, in which 
he had been accustomed to perform his devotions, 
and remained there alone a full half-hour; with what 
various emotions his mind must have been affected 
while in this situation could be known only to him- 
self, but may easily be imagined. It could hardly fail 
to recall to his recollection the happy period when he 
'^ communed with his own heart" in this sacred little 
chamber, and " remembered his Creator in the days 
of his youth,"— days which he might naturally enough 
be led to compare and contrast with those of the last 
nineteen years of his life, filled up as they had been 
with many and varied incidents, painful, hazardous, 
disastrous, and glorious. 

Every one was anxious to bring to his recollection 
any little circumstance in which he had been con- 
cerned, — among others, a beautiful boat was brought 
to him as a present, in the building of which he him- 
self had done " yeoman service." He was delighted 
to see that this ancient piece of the workmanship 
of his own hands had been preserved with such care. 
He caused it to be put on board a ship bound for 
Petersburg, but she was unfortunate^ captured by 
the Swedes ; and the boat is still kept in the arsenal 
of Stockholm. 

With his old acquaintance Kist, the blacksmith, 
he visited the smithy, w^hich was so dirty that the 
gentleman of his suite who attended him was retreat- 
ing, but Peter stopped him, to blow the bellows and 
heat a piece of iron, which, when so done, he beat 
out with the great hammer. Kist was still but a^ 
journeyman blacksmith, and the Tzar, out of com- 



240 MEMOIR OF 

passion for his old acquaintance, made him a hand- 
some present. 

The emperor was now determined to visit the 
capital of France, taking with him the princes 
Kourakin and Dolgorouki, the vice-chancellor Baron 
Shaffiroff, and the ambassador Tolstoy. Peter at 
first had some reluctance to take this journey, on 
account of his ignorance of the French language, but 
he overcame this : he determined, however, that 
Catharine should not on any account accompany 
him, but remain in Holland till his return. It was 
not from any dread that the encumbrances of cere- ' 
mony or the curiosity of a court might be irksome 
to her, nor that the French were incapable of esti- 
mating the merit of a woman who, from the banks 
of the Pruth to the shores of Finland, had, by her 
husband's side, faced death, both by sea and land, — 
the French were of all other nations the most likely 
to appreciate heroic qualities like these in a female : 
no, it was to prevent the possibility of her delicacy 
being wounded by the affected squeamishness of a 
court which might not assign to her that place, or 
pay her that respect, to which her situation entitled 
her. There was, it is true, some similarity between 
the marriages of the deceased Louis XIV. and Peter, 
— with this difference, which Voltaire admits, that 
Peter had publicly married a heroine, Louis, privately, 
a clever and agreeable woman. 

Great preparations were made at Paris for the 
reception of the Tzar. Coaches, attended with a 
squadron of guards, had been sent out to meet him, 
but, v/ith his usual rapidity and dislike of ceremony, 
he outstripped his intended escort. It had been 
arranged that he and his court should be splendidly 
lodged and entertained at the Louvre, but Peter's ob- 
ject being to avoid as much as possible all the idle 
ceremonies which would interfere with his pursuits, 
he went that very evening to lodge at the Hotel de 
Lesdiguieres at the other end of the town, where he 



PETER THE GREAT. 241 

might be master of his own time and at his ease. 
His reply to the servants of the sovereign v^as, " I 
am a soldier ; a little bread and beer satisfy me ; I 
prefer small apartments to large ones. I have no 
desire to be attended with pomp and ceremony, nor 
to give trouble to so many people." 

If Peter had been open to flattery, he found an 
ample store in Paris to gratify any avidity he might 
possess on that score. Happening to dine with the 
Duke d'Autin, he perceived in the dining-room his 
portrait fresh painted. On visiting the mint, a medal 
was struck Vvdiich was purposely suffered to fall from 
the die just at his feet : on taking it up he found it to 
be a medal of himself, on the obverse of which 
was a Fame, with this motto. Vires acquirit eimdo. 
Wherever he went, the portraits of the Tzar and 
Tzarina stared him in the face. On visiting the 
artists, whatever picture he most admired he v/as 
requested to accept, in the king's name. He went 
to see the tapestry of the Gobelins, the carpets of 
the Savonnerie, the different apartments of the king's 
sculptors, painters, goldsmiths, and mathematical 
instrumxent makers ; and whatever seemed most to 
attract his regards was offered to him in the same 
style. He visited the Academy of Sciences, and his 
name was enrolled among the number of its mem- 
bers. In short, he made a point of seeing all that 
was curious for magnificence, ingenuity, or utility. 
He had so far got the better of his shyness since the 
period of his visit to England, that he went to see 
the French parliament when sitting, and attended in 
state the service of several of the churches. 

Paris no doubt offered a variety of objects to de- 
light and astonish the northern hero ; but nothing 
perhaps gave him a higher degree of pleasure and 
admiration, than to see an operation performed on a 
man perfectly blind, whom Mr. Wallace, an English 
oculist, restored to sight. He was brought to the 
Hotel Lesdiguieres for the purpose of performing- the 
X 



242 MEMOIR OF 

operation in presence of the Tzar. It was observed 
that his majesty, when the needle was first put to 
the eye, turned away his head for a moment. The 
operation was successful ; and Peter was so much 
delighted, that he engaged Mr. Wallace to receive 
and instruct a pupil whom he designed to send to 
him on his return to Russia. 

Peter paid a visit to the splendid tomb of Cardi- 
nal Richelieu, one of the finest pieces of sculpture 
in Paris : he contemplated the statue of that cele- 
brated minister, to whom France owed so much of 
her glory and prosperity, with fixed attention for 
some time, and at last is said to have exclaimed, 
" Thou great man ! I would have given thee one 
half of my dominions, to learn of thee how to govern 
the other." 

He also showed himself at the Sorbonne, where 
the doctors had the bad taste to thrust into his hands 
a memorial, in which they expressed their anxiety 
for the reunion of the Greek and Latin churches, 
about wldch the Tzar probably never had troubled 
himself, or, if he did, it was ver}^ unlikely that he, 
the patriarch, or at least the head, of the Greek 
church would submit to acknowledge either the 
temporal or spiritual sovereignty of the pope. He 
received this pedantic memorial with great aifabil- 
ity, but told its authors he was a soldier and had not 
much attended to controversial matters, which he 
supposed were contained in their paper, and that his 
bishops were better versed in them than himself. 
The Russian bishops, however, were indignant at 
the proposal. Voltaire says it was to dissipate the 
apprehensions of such a reunion that, some time 
after, when, in 1718, he had expelled the Jesuits out 
of his dominions, he renewed the farce already de- 
scribed under the name of the Conclave. 

As when in England, so now in France, Peter en- 
gaged and carried back with him artists and mechan- 
ics of various kinds, in procuring wham he met with 



PETER THE GREAT. 243 

no difficulty. He had seen all the trades and manu- 
factories of the capital and its neighbourhood, and 
knew what would best suit his own country. His 
visit, however, was not confined to matters of this 
kind. He drew up with his own hand the minutes 
of a treaty of commerce, which his ministers nego- 
tiated after his departure. He had also several com- 
munications with the French ministers relating 'to 
the peace between the northern powers. 

Having taken leave of France, he hastened to 
Amsterdam to rejoin Catharine, who, during his ab- 
sence, had been treated with every mark of kind- 
ness and attention by the Dutch authorities, and 
amused on the water with sailing parties and sham- 
fights. 

It was the invariable custom of Peter, when trav- 
elling, to inquire at every city, town, or even vil- 
lage, if there was any thing remarkable or extraor- 
dinary to be seen ; and whenever it happened that 
something was mentioned, no matter what, he im- 
mediately uttered his old Dutch expression, '' Dat 
wil ik zien^'* — " I shall see that ;*' so eager w^as he to 
obtain knowledge of every description. In passing 
through Wittemberg, in Saxony, on his way to Ber- 
lin, he asked the innkeeper if there was nothing par- 
ticular to be seen in that place. " Not much," was 
the answer, "' except, perhaps, the old palace of the 
elector, wherein are the apartment and the study 
occupied by Luther, and his monument in the church. " 
— ^^ Dat wil ik zieny^ and while dinner was prepar- 
^ing he hurried away to the church, where he saw 
placed on the tomb of Luther a statue in bronze as 
large as life. " This is not too much," said the 
Tzar, "for so great a man." On entering the apart- 
ment where Luther lived and died, the conductor 
pointed out a large spot of ink on the wall, and said 
that the devil having appeared one day to Luther 
while he was writing, and teased and annoyed him 
beyond all patience, he took up his inkstand and 



244 



MEMOIR OF 



hurled it at the head of the " foul iiend," but it struck 
the wall, and every attempt to efface the mark has 
failed. Peter laughed at so ridiculous a story, not 
believing that so learned a man could possibly ima- 
gine that he saw the devil. Perceiving the smoky 
walls covered with the names of visiters, " I must 
add mine," said Peter ; and taking from his pocket a 
bit of chalk, wrote his name in Russian characters 
close to the spot of ink. As a memorial of the 
handwriting of this great man, a small box with a 
grating in front of it was placed over the name. "I 
saw it," says Staehlin, " in my way to Russia in the 
year 1735." 

In proceeding to Berlin the Tzar travelled post, 
leaving the Tzarina and the court to follow at their 
leisure. He entered Berlin at a late hour, and 
alighted at a lodging which his ambassador had pre- 
pared for him. Frederick sent his grand master of 
the ceremonies to wait on him and to compliment 
him on his arrival. The Tzar gave them to under- 
stand his stay would be very short, and that, if the 
king pleased, he would wait upon him the next day 
at noon. Accordingly, two hours before the time, 
six of the most splendid court-carriages came to the 
Tzar's lodging, in each of which was a young Rus- 
sian nobleman whom the Tzar had sent to study at 
Berlin. The carriages and the retinue waited till 
noon, when they were informed that the Tzar was 
already with the king. He had slipped out of the 
back-door and walked to the palace. The king was 
greatly surprised ; but the Tzar, thanking him for his 
polite attention, said, "1 am not accustomed to such 
magnificence — I dislike parade, and always walk 
whenever I can. I frequently walk five times the 
distance I have done to-day." 

Two days after this the Tzarina and the whole 
court arrived, and were escorted to a beautiful house 
and garden, belonging to the Queen of Prussia, situ- 
ated on the banks of the river, named Mon Bijou. 



PETER THE GREAT. 245 

Voltaire is pleased to say that the new King of 
Prussia was not less an enemy to the vanities of 
ceremony and magnificence than the Russian mon- 
arch ; that a king, in a wooden arm-chair, and 
clothed like a common soldier, denying himself all 
the delicacies of the table, and all the conveniences 
of life, was a rebuke to the etiquette of Vienna and 
Spain, the punctilio of Italy, and the predominant 
fondness for luxury in France : he observes that the 
manner of living of the Tzar and Tzarina was in 
like plainness and severity ; and that had Charles 
XII. been with them, four crowned heads would 
have been seen together with less fastuous pomp 
about them than a German bishop, or a Roman car- 
dinal.* 

This may be true as regards the private habits of 
the King and Queen of Prussia ; but the Tzar and 
Tzarina were treated with more of pride and pomp 
in the manner of living than plainness and severity. 
Their reception at this court, as described by an eye- 
witness, is curious and interesting ; but the writer at 
a mature age describes what her impressions were 
when she was a child of eight years old : — f 

" The Tzar and Tzarina with all their attendants 
came by water to Mon Bijou. The king and queen 
received them on the shore. The king handed the 
Tzarina out of the boat. The Tzar, taking the king 
by the hand, said, 'I am overjoyed to see you, bro- 
ther Frederick ;' he then approached the queen to 
embrace her, but she looked as if she would have 
rather been excused. They were attended," the wri- 
ter says, " by a whole train of what were called ladies 
as part of their suite, consisting chiefly of young 
German women, who performed the part of ladies' 
maids, chamber-maids, cook-maids, and washer- 
women ; almost all of whom had a richly-clothed 

* Voltaire. 

t Memoires de la Margrave de Bareith 
X 



246 MEMOIR OF 

child in their arms. The queen," she says, "re- 
fused to salute these creatures. 

" The Tzarina is short and lusty, remarkably 
coarse, without grace and animation. One need 
only see her to be satisfied of her lo<w birth. At the 
first blush one would take her for a German actress. 
Her clothes looked as if bought at a doll-shop ; 
every thing was so old-fashioned, and so bedecked 
with silver and tinsel. She was decorated with a 
dozen orders, portraits of saints, and relics, which 
occasioned such a clatter {geklink klank), that when 
she walked one would suppose an ass with bells was 
approaching. The Tzar, on the contrary, was tall 
and well made. His countenance is handsome, but 
there is something in it so rude that it inspires one 
with dread ; he was dressed like a seaman, in a frock 
without lace or ornament." 

At table the Tzar was placed next to the queen. 
*' It is well known," this lady says, " that in his 
youth the Tzar was once poisoned ; the subtle venom 
fell upon his nerves, whence he is still subject to a 
kind of convulsive twitching which he cannot over- 
come. He had one of these while at table, and at 
the moment he happened to have a knife in his hand, 
with which he made such strange gesticulations, 
and on the side next the queen, that she became 
frightened and wished to leave the table ; but the 
Tzar told her to make herself easy, assuring her he 
would do her no harm ; once he caught her hand, 
and held it with such force that the queen desired 
him to be more respectful. On this he burst out into 
a fit of laughter, and said that she was of a much 
more delicate frame than his Catharine." 

This lady then relates how the Tzar begged some 
statues and pieces of sculpture from the king, which 
he dared not to refuse, and a cabinet inlaid with am- 
ber, unique in its kind, which cost Frederick I. a 
large sum of money. It was packed up and sent 
with the rest to St."^ Petersburg, to the great regret 



PETER THE GREAT. 247 

of the whole court. The strangers departed on the 
third day, when the queen betook herself immedi- 
ately to Mon Bijou ; and here, it is observed, she 
found the destruction of Jerusalem — " Never," says 
the writer, " did I see the like ; all was so completely 
ruined that the queen was obliged to renew every 
thing in the house." 

On Peter's return to Holland, the short time he 
remained there was almost wholly occupied in ex- 
amining and purchasing whatever appeared to him 
most rare or valuable ; and among other things, 
several of the most valuable specimens of pictures 
of the Dutch and Flemish schools, more particularly 
of Backhuysen and Van der Yeldt, with a consider- 
able collection of those by Rubens, Rembrandt, Te- 
niers, Ostade, Jansteen, andWouvermans. He also 
purchased several cabinets of great value ; among 
others, that of animals and insects of Albertus Seba. 
He also bought the highly esteemed anatomical cab- 
inet of Professor Ruysch (which he was fifty years 
in collecting), for 30,000 florins. At that time it was 
considered particularly valuable and curious, as con- 
taining a regular succession of the young foetus, 
from the earliest period of conception to the birth 
of the infant, and for the exquisitely delicate injec- 
tions of the brain and the eye. He also made a col- 
lection of the best books which treated of fortifica- 
tion, engineering, and navigation, the works of Eras- 
mus, and a great variety of articles, which formed a 
part of the collection that laid the foundation of the 
Imperial Academy of Sciences : an institution of 
which he drew the plan himself. 



248 MEMom OF 



CHAPTER XII. 

The Trial, Condemnation, and Death of the Tzarovitz Alexis. 

The fate of the unfortunate, but unworthy, son of 
Peter was fast approaching its crisis. A tragical 
scene was to be acted, which required on the part 
of the sovereign all the sternness and severity of 
Roman virtue. For a long time it had occasioned 
great anxiety and grief to the Tzar, to find his son 
Alexis, not only disinclined to second his views for 
the regeneration and improvement of his country, 
but ready to disobey every admonition ; to connect 
himself with a party whose object was to destroy all 
that his father had created, to listen to the counsels 
of the malecontents, among whom were several 
priests, who had persuaded him that it was his duty 
to hold in abhorrence his father's innovations ; and, 
at his death, which was represented as an event at 
no great distance, to abolish the whole of them, 
and revert to the ancient and wholesome customs 
of the country. This weak young prince, abetted by 
his mother and family, readily listened to all the sug- 
gestions of his base advisers, and, thus encouraged, 
gave himself up to every species of licentiousness 
and debauchery. 

The death of his neglected and insulted wife, who 
fell, as has been seen, a victim to his unfeeling and 
brutal conduct, was a sore affliction to Peter's mind, 
and determined him at once to come to a clear un- 
derstanding with a son so utterly unworthy to suc- 
ceed to the government of a country which, by his 
talent and laborious exertions and perseverance, 
through good report and ill report, had been raised 



PETER THE GREAT. 249 

to its proper standard in the scale of civilized na- 
tions. It was but too evident, that, unless a total 
change could be effected in the conduct and opinions 
of this unworthy son, Russia at the death of the 
Tzar would very soon be plunged into its former 
state of barbarism. Peter, therefore, while yet 
grieving for the death of the princess, addressed a 
letter to Alexis, in which, after taking a view of his 
faults and his follies, and bestowing on him fatherly 
admonition, he concludes by telling him, that he will 
still wait to see if he be disposed to amend ; but if 
not, that he may rest assured he will cut him off 
from the succession, as a useless limb : that he 
must not imagine this menace is used merely to in- 
timidate, nor must he place any reliance on the 
title he possesses of being his eldest son ; for that, 
since he has never spared his own life for the good 
of his country, and the prosperity of his people, he 
sees no reason why he should spare that of a son 
who is careless of both. " I would rather," says he, 
" commit them to an entire stranger, who may be 
worthy of such a trust, than to my own offspring 
undeserving it." 

In reply to this letter, the misguided young man 
briefly told his father that he was ready to renounce 
the crown ; that he called God to witness, and swore 
upon his soul, he never would lay claim to the suc- 
cession ; that he committed his children into his 
father's hands ; and that, for himself, he desired no 
more than a subsistence during life. 

His father once more addressed him, in these 
words : — '• I observe in your letter that you speak 
only of the succession, as if I stood in need of your 
consent ; and you say not a word of the affliction 
which I told you your conduct had given me for so 
many years ; the admonitions of a father appear to 
make no impression on you. I have prevailed on my- 
self to write to you once more, and for the last time. 
Though you may not now mean to violate your prom- 



250 MEMOIR OF 

ises, yet those hushy heards will bind you to their 
purpose, and compel you to break your word. These 
are the persons who place their hopes on you ; and 
you have no gratitude to him who gave you life. 
Since the time of your coming of age, have you ever 
assisted him in his labours'? have you not found fault 
with, do you not detest, every thing I do for the good 
of my people 1 have I not every reason to believe 
that, should you survive me, you will destroy all 
that I have been doing? Amend your life — make 
yourself worthy of the succession, or turn monk. 1 
desire your answer personally or in writing, or I 
must deal with you as a criminal." 

The reply of the prince was as follows : — " Your 
letter of the 19th of this month I received yesterday 
morning ; my illness prevents me from writing at 
length. 1 intend to embrace the monastic life, and 
1 request your gracious consent to that effect." 

Thus matters stood till the departure of the Tzar 
for France and Germany was at hand. He then paid 
a visit to his son, and found him ill, or feigning to be 
so, and in bed ; but he confirmed to him, by the most 
solemn oaths, that he would retire into a convent. 
Peter, with the feeling of a father, having compas- 
sion for his youth, laid before him all the difficulties 
of that kind of life, and advised him to do nothing 
lightly, but reflect on it well, and take six months to 
consider of it. After this he set out with his con- 
sort. That very night was spent by Alexis with his 
dissolute associates in drunkenness and debauchery. 

Seven months passed away, and the Tzar heard 
nothing from his son. He wrote to him therefore, 
from Copenhagen, reproaching him for his silence ; 
desiring him, if he had applied himself to the task 
of making himself fit for the succession, not to delay 
beyond a week to join him at Copenhagen, where 
he would arrive in time to be present at the opera- 
tions of the ensuing campaign ; but, if he took the 
other part he desired to know by the return of the 



PETER THE GREAT. 251 

courier, at what time he was prepared to carry his 
plan into execution. On the receipt of this letter, 
which called for his immediate determination, he con- 
sulted his evil-minded advisers, who told him how 
dangerous it would be to put himself into the power 
of a provoked father and a mother-in-law, at a distance 
from all his friends. He pretended, however, to the 
regency that he should set out for Copenhagen, and 
obtained money to a considerable amount from Men- 
zikoff for the expenses of the journey ; but on reach- 
ing the borders of Livonia, he took the road to Vi- 
enna, -and threw himself on the protection of the 
emperor, intending, if permitted, to continue at his 
court till the death of his father. Charles, however, 
was in no disposition to give offence to the Tzar of 
Russia, and after some time the Tzarovitz removed 
himself to Naples. 

When the Tzar heard of his proceedings, he sent 
away Captain Romanzoff, of the guards, and M. 
Tolstoi, a privy-counsellor, with a letter dated from 
Spa, the 10th July, 1717, of which the following is 
the substance ; " That Tolstoi and Romanzoff will 
make known to him his will ; that on his obedience 
he gave him his assurance and promise before God 
that he would not inflict punishment on him, but, on 
his return, would love him better than ever. But," 
says he, " if you do not, by virtue of the power I 
have received from God as your father, I pronounce 
against you my everlasting curse ; and, as your 
sovereign, 1 can assure you I shall find ways to pun- 
ish you ; which I hope, as my cause is just, God 
will take it in hand, and assist me in avenging it." 

It required much persuasion and promises, and 
even menace, before the envoys could prevail on 
Alexis to return with them to his father. They 
dwelt on the solemn asseveration in the letter, that 
the Tzar would not only pardon, but would love him 
better than ever. On this assurance the Tzarovitz, 
with his mistress, S6t out with the two envoys* 



252 MEMOIR OF 

They arrived at Moscow on the 13th February, 1718, 
and on that very day the prince had a private inter- 
view with his father. 

A general belief now prevailed that a reconcilia- 
tion had taken place, and that every thing was to 
be forgotten ; but the very next day the regiments 
of guards were ordered under arms, and the great 
bell of Moscow was tolled. The senate, the boyars, 
the privy-counsellors were summoned to the castle ; 
the bishops, the archimandrites, the superior clergy, 
the professors of divinity, assembled in the cathe- 
dral. Alexis was brought into the castle as a pris- 
oner ; he fell on his knees before his father, and 
delivered to him a paper, in which he acknowledged 
his crimes, declared himself unworthy of the succes- 
sion, and entreated that his life might be spared. 
The Tzar, raising him up, took him into a closet, but 
what passed therein is conjecture only. When 
brought back into the council-chamber, a declara- 
tion of the Tzar was publicly read. It commenced 
by reproaching his son with indolence and remiss- 
ness in improving himself, in associating with disso- 
lute companions, his hatred of all improvements, his 
violation of conjugal faith by taking up with a low- 
born woman, by placing himself under the protec- 
tion of the Emperor of Germany, slandering his 
father, and asking the emperor to defend him by 
force of arms, telling him (what turned out to be too 
true) that his life was not safe if he returned to Rus- 
sia. The declaration then proceeds : — 

" Such was the manner in which our son has re- 
turned ; and though his flight and his calumnies de- 
serve death, those crimes our fatherly affection has 
forgiven. But his notorious unworthiness and im- 
morality will not allow us, in conscience, to leave 
to him the succession to the empire ; it being too 
manifest that by his ill conduct the glory of the 
nation would be overturned, and a loss occasioned 
of all the provinces recovered by our arms. To 



PETER THE GREAT. 253 

place our subjects under such a successor, would be 
to plunge them into a condition much worse than 
they have at any time experienced. Accordingly, 
by our paternal power, in virtue of which, agreeably 
with the laws of our empire, every subject even can 
at pleasure disinherit a son, — and in pursuance of 
our prerogative as sovereign prince, and in consid- 
eration of the welfare of our dominions, — we de- 
prive our said son Alexis of the succession after us 
to the throne of Russia, on account of his crimes and 
his un worthiness, even though there should not exist 
a single person of our family at the time of our de- 
cease. 

" And we constitute and declare, in default of a 
successor of a more advanced age, our second son 
Peter, young though he be, as successor to the said 
throne after us. 

" May our paternal malediction fall on our above- 
mentioned son Alexis, if ever at any time he shall 
set up such pretensions to the said succession, or 
take measures for procuring it. 

'•We also require our faithful subjects, ecclesias- 
tics and seculars, as well as every other state, and 
the whole Russian nation, that, in pursuance of this 
ordinance and our will, they acknowledge and con- 
sider our said son Peter, nominated by us to the 
succession, as the lawful successor, and that, con- 
formably with this present ordinance, they confirm 
every part of it by oath before the holy altar, on the 
holy gospels, kissing the cross. 

" And all those who shall at any time whatsoever 
oppose this our will, and who, from and after the 
date hereof, shall dare to consider our son Alexis as 
successor, or assist him to that end, we declare them 
traitors to us and their country ; and we have ordered 
this present ordinance to be published, that no per- 
son may plead ignorance. Given, &c. 14th February, 
1718. Signed with our hand, and sealed with our 
seal." 

Y 



254 MEMOIR OF 

After which was read the " Act of Renunciation," 
on the part of the Tzarovitz, which he had placed in 
the hands of his majesty : — 

" I, the undersigned, declare before the holy Evan- 
gelists, that 1 acknowledge and avow this exclusion 
to be just, as having deserved it by my crimes and 
unw^orthiness : and I bind myself and swear, in the 
name of the sacred and almighty Trinity, to sub- 
mit myself wholly to this my father's will ; never to 
seek after this succession, never to lay claim to it, 
never to accept it, under any pretence whatever ; 
and I acknowledge as lawful successor my brother, 
the Tzarovitz Peter Pietrovitz, on which I kiss the 
holy cross, and sign these presents with my own 
hand. — Alexis." 

The same instruments were then taken by the 
Tzar to the cathedral, where they went through a 
second reading, and all the ecclesiastics testified 
their approbation, and signed their names. " Never," 
says Voltaire, ^'was prince disinherited in so authen- 
tic a manner. There are many states in which such 
an act would be of no validity ; but in Russia, as 
among the ancient Romans, every father could dis- 
inherit his son ; and this is much stronger in a sove- 
reign than in a subject, and especially in such a 
sovereign as Peter." This sovereign, however, has 
been much censured for breaking faith with his son, 
after the solemn promise, amounting to an oath, that 
if he returned from Naples, he would not only for- 
give him, but love him more than ever. The same 
writer finds an apology, by saying, that "perhaps 
the father, in the conflict between paternal affection 
and reasons of state, meant only to confer that love 
on his son as a recluse ; that perhaps he might stiR 
hope to reclaim him ; and by bringing him to a due 
sense of the loss of the crown, render him worthy 
of the succession." 

The apology appears but a weak one ; still it must 
be admitted the Tzar was placed in a critical and 



EETER THE GREAT. 255 

most painful situation. He knew that this son was 
by nature of a very weak order of intellect, and that 
he had long been beset by a mischievous party, who 
instilled into his mind a hatred of his father and of 
every step he took for the improvement of his coun- 
try ; who had advised his elopement, and who would, 
undoubtedly, set aside a renunciation which had 
been thrust upon him ; and use every endeavour to 
restore to him the crown which, he would be told, 
had been illegally transferred to a younger and a 
half-brother. He knew, and all sensible men who 
had any regard for themselves and their country 
knew, that in such a case, the certain consequence 
would be a civil war, and the end of it a total loss 
of all his glorious conquests, and the ruin of all his 
useful establishments, in laying the foundations of 
which he had spent the whole of a laborious life. 
The question, as Voltaire says, lay between the 
welfare of eighteen millions of men and one single 
person, and that person wholly incapable of gov- 
erning. These were the considerations, probably, 
which determined the Tzar to know the names of the 
disaffected, to what extent their numbers amounted, 
and who had been his principal ill-advisers ; and this 
was considered to be of such importance, that the 
Tzar threatened his son with capital punishment 
should he conceal any thing from him. Alexis prom- 
ised to declare the whole and pure truth, as before 
God, and without disguise ; and swore, on the holy 
Evangelists, before the altar, to discover every 
thing. 

The next day the Tzar sent him a number of 
questions, which he was to answer in writing. One 
of them related to a letter from M. Beyer, the em- 
peror's resident at Petersburg, written after the 
prince's elopement, the substance of which was, 
that the Russian army in Mecklenburg had mutinied ; 
that several of the officers talked of sending the new 
Tzarma (Catharine) and her son to the prison where 



256 MEMOIR OF 

the repudiated Tzarina was confined, and of placing 
Alexis on the throne. To this gossiping letter of 
one of those gentlemen who, residing at foreign 
courts, think it a part of their duty to send to their 
employers the news of the day, whether true or 
false, the young prince might have pleaded igno- 
rance : what had he to do with Beyer's letter V He 
was asked, however, the following question :— . 

"When you saw, by Beyer's letter, that there 
was a revolt in the Mecklenburg army, you was 
glad of it ; I apprehend you had some view, and that 
you would have declared for the rebels, even in mv 
lifetime V 

Such a question among a civilized people, and in 
England in particular, would not have been suffered 
to be put ; or, if put, the judge would have cautioned 
the prisoner not to answer. But Russia was yet 
barbarous as well as despotic ; and a person there 
might be condemned to death for a secret sentiment 
on a prospective event which never happened. 
Alexis, however, answered the question in writing : 
" Had the rebels invited me in your lifetime, I should 
probably have joined them, had they been strong 
enough." 

Another charge was of a much more serious na- 
ture. Rough drafts of two letters, written from 
Vienna, were found in his own hand,— one to the 
senators, and the other to the archbishops of Russia ; 
in the latter of which he says, " The continual in- 
juries which I have undeservedly suffered have 
obliged me to quit my country : I had a narrow es- 
cape from being shut up in a convent : they who 
have confined my mother were about to use me in 
the same manner. I am under the protection of a 
great prince. It is my desire you will not forsake 
me at present." 

The words at present had been drawn through with 
a pen, and afterward replaced with his own hand, — 



PETER THE GREAT. 257 

and again a second time effaced. The letters them- 
selves were stopped by the court of Vienna. 

A person of the name of Afanassief deposed that 
he had heard Alexis say, " I will say something to 
the bishops, and they will tell it among the priests, 
and the priests to their parishioners, and I shall be 
placed on the throne, even though it were against 
my will." His mistress Aphrosine deposed against 
him, as complaining of his father, and wishing for 
his death. The prince was also accused of consult- 
ing his mother, the late Tzarina, and his sister, the 
Princess Mary, with regard to his elopement ; and 
the Bishop of Rostof deposed that, being in their 
confidence, he knew that these two princesses en- 
tertained hopes of a change that would release them 
from confinement ; and that they instigated Alexis 
to fly into Germany, instead of going to his father at 
Copenhagen. A priest of the name of Jaques, being 
put to the torture, owned that the prince, in confes- 
sion, had accused himself before God that he had 
wished his father's death; and that he, the confes- 
sor, made answer, " God will forgive you ; it is no 
more than what we all wish." 

It is not necessary to go through all the proceed- 
ings of this lamentable story. The most extraor- 
dinary part of it is the eagerness with which Alexis 
strove, as it were, to make himself appear guilty ; 
and even the falsehoods which he uttered, to give 
a stronger colour to his guilt : for instance, in an- 
swer to his father's sixth question, he owns he did 
not see the emperor ; that he applied to Count 
Schonborn, who said to him, " The emperor will not 
forsake you ; and at a proper season, after your 
father's demise, he will assist you with an armed 
force to ascend the throne." — " My answer was," 
added the accused prince, " that is not what I ask : 
all 1 desire is, that the emperor will be pleased 
to grant me his protection." This was in the month 
of February, at Moscow. But after the execution of 
Y2 



258 MEMOIR OF 

the accomplices named by the prince, and a lapse of 
four months, and whenthe proceedings were renewed 
against this unfortunate young man at Petersburg, 
being again interrogated on this point, he says, in 
writing, '' Being resolved to imitate my father in 
nothing, I endeavoured to arrive at the succession 
at any rate, even by foreign assistance ; and if I had 
succeeded in my object, and the emperor had done 
what he promised me, — that he would obtain for me 
the crown of Russia, even by open force,— I would 
have spared nothing to secure myself in the suc- 
cession. I would, at my ov/n cost, have maintained 
the auxiliary troops with which he would have sup- 
plied me, to put me in possession of the crown of 
Russia ; and, in short, I would have stuck at nothing 
to carry my point." 

This gratuitous falsehood looks very much as if it 
had been extorted from him ; unless, indeed, it was 
intended as a defiance to the proceedings which his 
father was instituting against him. The Tzar prom- 
ised him pardon on making a general confession ; 
but he did not desire him to state what was not true. 
He was asked, as a condition of that pardon, to 
declare the accomplices of his elopement ; he con- 
cealed several of them ; the answers he gave to 
several of his father's interrogatories in February 
were at variance with those he delivered in July. 
When, therefore, Peter came to the final resolution 
of trying him by the great officers of state, the judges, 
and the bishops, he yielded to a distressing case of 
state necessity, which he considered as requiring the 
exercise of rigid justice, on the broad principle, that 
it is better a delinquent should be punished than a 
whole empire be endangered ; and that reasons of 
state must be held as paramount even to the ties of 
nature and of blood, which, in the present case, had 
long been severed by the unnatural conduct of the 
son against the father. In truth, his conduct had 
been such from his boyhood as to efface every feel- 



PETER THE GREAT. 259 

ing of natural affection from his father's heart. In 
judging of this case, we should bear in mind 
what were the circumstances, the condition, the 
manners, and the laws of Russia. Even now, in 
that despotic government, the summary removal 
from life of the sovereign, or members of the im- 
perial family, is tacitly claimed as a sort of right.* 
Here, however, a solemn assembly w^as openly held, 
the charges were promulgated, the sentence of the 
judges, and every document connected with the 
proceedings, published to the v/hole world, that both 
Russia and the surrounding nations might have the 
means of forming a judgment between the father and 
the son. 

It has been said that Peter instituted these pro- 
ceedings from a wish to secure the throne for his 
younger son, to the exclusion of Alexis ; but there is 
proof on record that, many years before the birth of 
this boy, he had determined to disinherit Alexis, and 
gave him notice he should do so, if he did not amend. 
As far back indeed as 1711, he had in his own mind 
set him aside. In that disastrous affair on the Pruth, 
in acquainting the senate with the perilous situation 
into which he had been led by false information, all 
his resources cut off, his army surrounded by an 
enemy four times more numerous than his own, he 
concludes his letter by saying, " If I am doomed to 
perish here, and you should receive an authenticated 
account of my death, you will then proceed to 
choose, as my successor, the most worthy among you.'''* 

The law of Russia, which conferred the fatal right 
on the Tzar to punish his son with death, merely for 
his elopement, independent of any other crime, left 
this, or an}^ other punishment, in the sovereign's 
hands ; but he thought it more proper to submit the 
case for the decision of the judges of the land, the 
nobles, and the ecclesiastics, before whom he thus 
aeclared his sentiments : — 

* Quarterly Review, vol. xxxv. 



260 MEMOIR OF 



n 



" Though by all divine and human laws, and espe- 
cially by those of Russia, which exclude all inter- 
position of the civil power between father and son, 
even among private persons, v/e have a sufficient 
and absolute power of sentencing our son according 
to his crimes and our will, without consulting any 
one ; yet men not being so clear-sighted in their own 
affairs as in those of others, and as the most skilful 
physicians, instead of prescribing for themselves, 
have recourse to others when sick ; so, fearing lest 
I should bring some sin on my conscience, I state 
my case to you, and require a remedy. For if, 
ignorant of the name of my distemper, I should go 
about to cure it by my own ability, the consequence 
may be eternal death, seeing that I have sworn on 
the judgments of God, and have, in writing, promised 
my son his pardon, provided he tells me the truth, 
and afterward confirms that promise with his mouth. 

" Though my son has broken his promise, yet that 
I may not, in any thing, depart from my obligations, 
I desire you will think on this affair, and examine it 
with the greatest attention, to see what he has de- 
served. Do not flatter me ; be neither in the least 
afraid that, should he deserve only a slight punish- 
ment, and you deliver your opinion accordingly, it 
will offend me ; for 1 swear to you, by the great 
God, and by his judgments, that you have absolutely 
nothing at all to apprehend. 

" Let it give you no uneasiness that you have to 
try your sovereign's son ; but, without any respect 
of persons, do justice, and destroy not both your 
souls and mine. Lastly, let not our conscience have 
any thing to reproach us with on the terrible day of 
judgment, and let not our country be hurt." 

The clergy were the first to deliver their opinion, 
which they did by stating that the affair does not in 
any way belong to the ecclesiastical jurisdiction ; 
that the absolute prerogative is vested in the sove- 
reign, and does not depend on the judgment of the 



PETER THE GREAT. 261 

subjects. They quote cases from the Old Testa- 
ment, in which it is said that " Whoever curseth his 
father or mother shall be punished with death ;" and 
having cited various other passages, they thus con- 
clude : — " If his majesty is inclined to punish the 
delinquent according to his actions and the measure 
of his guilt, he has before him examples from the 
Old Testament : if he be inclined to spare, he has 
the pattern of Christ himself, kindly receiving the 
penitent prodigal, dismissing the woman taken in 
adultery, who, by the law, was to be stoned ; and 
delighting in mercy more than sacrifice. He has 
the example of David, who is solicitous for the safety 
of Absalom his son, though an open rebel, recom- 
mending him to the commanders of his army, who 
insisted on giving him battle ; " Spare my son Ahsa- 
lom'^ — the father was for showing him mercy, but 
Divine justice did not spare him. The Tzar's heart 
is in the hands of God ; let him choose that to which 
God shall incline him." 

This opinion, which does great credit to the clergy 
of Russia, was signed by the metropolitan of Rezan, 
eight bishops, four archimandrites and two pro- 
fessors, and delivered to the Tzar : it manifestly was 
inclined to clemency. But more interrogations, and 
more confessions followed this ; and, on the 5th July, 
the ministers, the senators, and generals, to the 
number of one hundred and twenty-four, unanimously 
condemned Alexis to death, but without specifying 
the manner of his execution ; " submitting this sen- 
tence which we deliver, and this condemnation which 
we declare, to the supreme honour, the will, and the 
merciful revision of his majesty, our most merciful 
sovereign." 

There can be but one opinion as to the harshness 
and barbarity of the whole proceeding ; and better 
far would it have been for the father, in virtue of his 
prerogative, to have put to death his disobedient son, 
than to have worried him night and day for nearly 



262 MEMOIR OF 

five months, extorting from him confessions — not, 
however, as has been said, by actual torture, at least 
this does not appear — but only surmised on the 
ground that nothing short of corporeal agony could 
have created in the young man a manifest desire to 
criminate himself, even as to his secret thoughts, and 
to represent himself as a person of a malignant mind 
and evil disposition. The Tzar, however, thought 
he was acting right, in referring to the judgment of 
the representatives of the nation a case in which 
the fate of that nation was so deeply concerned ; and 
not doubting the equity of his proceedings, he caused 
the whole trial to be printed and translated, and thus 
submitted himself to the judgment of the world.* 

A foreign writer, of the name of Lamberti, has 
accused Catharine of inducing the Tzar to bring 
Alexis to trial, and cause him to be sentenced to 
death ; asserts that the Tzar knouted his son, and then 
with his own hands cut off his head ; but that, when 
publicly exposed, it was so cleverly fitted to the 
body, that it did not appear to have ever been 
.severed; that Peter contracted a sourness after 
this, and entertained a thought of having the Tzarina 
shaved and shut up in a convent ; that she and Men- 
zikoff poisoned the Tzar ; with much more of such 
absurd trash, which the writer procured from a man 
who was not in Russia at the time, and who, Voltaire 
says, owned to him " that all he had talked about 
with Lamberti was only the report of those times ;" 
and this is history ! As to the sourness of Peter, 
and the shaving and shutting up of Catharine, it may 
be charitably supposed that Lamberti had never 
heard of her accompanying him, long after this, to 
Persia, nor of her coronation, nor of the reasons as- 
signed by Peter for conferring that honour on his 
faithful spouse. Voltaire very properly exposes the 

* Nestesuranoi. Mottley's book contains the whole of the 
voluminous documents that were made public. 



PETER THE GREAT. 263 

absurdity of the whole story ; and further says, with 
regard to Catharine, on the authority of a pubhc 
minister, that the Tzar told the Duke of Holstein 
that Catharine had entreated him to hinder the sen- 
tence being pronounced against the Tzarovitz ; and 
that he should be satisfied by compelling him to 
become a monk, as the disgrace of a sentence of 
death would reflect on his grandson.* The Tzar, 
however, could not be prevailed on to yield to the 
entreaties of his consort, but thought it proper that 
the sentence should at least be publicly pronounced ; 
that b}' this solemn act being publicly made known, 
and rendering Alexis civilly dead, he would be for 
ever disqualified from afterward pretending even to 
the crown. By this it would seem the Tzar had no 
intention whatever of carrying the sentence into 
execution. In his letter to the several courts of 
Europe, assigning his reasons for the public trial of 
his son, he says, after stating the nature of the sen- 
tence, " and while we were debating in our mind 
between the natural motions of paternal clemency 
on one side, and the regard we ought to pay to the 
preservation and the future security of our kingdom 
on the other, and pondering on what resolution to 
take, in an affair of so great difficulty and import- 
ance, it pleased the Almighty God, by his especial 
will and his just judgment, and by his mercy, to 
deliver us out of that embarrassment, and to save 
our family and kingdom from the shame and the 
dangers, by abridging yesterday the life of our said 
son Alexis, after an illness with which he was seized, 
as soon as he had heard the sentence of death pro- 
nounced against him. That illness appeared at first 
like an apoplexy ; but he afterward recovered his 
senses, and received the holy sacraments as a 
Christian ; and having desired to see us, we went to 
him immediately, with all our counsellors and sena- 

* Voltaire's Hist, de Russie. 



264 HIEMOIR OF 

tors ; and then he acknowledged and sincerely con- 
fessed all his said faults and crimes committed 
against us, with tears, and all the marks of a true 
penitent, and begged our pardon, which, according 
to Christian and paternal duty, we granted him : 
after which, on the 7th July, at six in the evening, 
he surrendered his soul to God."^ 

This account, according to most of the historians, 
is strictly true, and certainly argues no intention on 
the part of the Tzar to carry the sentence into exe- 
cution ; and yet various reports were spread over 
Europe, giving a very different interpretation to the 
manner of the prince's death, most of which may be 
traced to the different foreign residents at the court 
of Petersburg at the time. One wrote home a re- 
port that the Tzar had poisoned him ; another that 
he had whipped or knouted him to death ; and a 
third that he had cut off his head with his. own hands. 
At what particular time he could have done all or 
any of these it would be difficult to discover. The 
Tzarovitz was taken out of the court in the evening 
of the 6th July ; on the morning of the 7th, messen- 
gers came to the Tzar to report the illness of his 
son, with his request to see him. He went accord- 
ingly, attended by all the great officers of his court, 
among whom were foreigners, both Scotch and 
Germans ; he took an affectionate leave ; but the 
illness of the prince increasing, he was sent for 
again in the evening, and was on the point of going 
when he was stopped by intelhgence of his son's 
death. Here, therefore, there could be no knouting 
nor cutting the head off, unless it was done in the 
presence of the senators, the bishops, the generals, 
and courtiers, all of whom accompanied the Tzar ; 
and yet, one of our most intelligent travellers, a 
master of arts, a fellow of the Royal and Antiquarian 

* Mottley. 



PETER THE GREAT 265 

Societies, and a dignitary of the church, states his 
beUef that Alexis "was secretly executed in prison."* 
Mr. Coxe places his faith on Busching, the com- 
piler of an historical magazine, — a receptacle for all 
that was sent to it, in wiiich it is positively affirmed 
that he was beheaded by order of his father, and 
that Marshal Weyde performed the office of execu- 
tioner. This, at any rate, exonerates the Tzar from 
having done it himself. And on what ground is this 
bold assertion made ? — on a conversation of a se- 
cond person with a certain Madame Cramer, a lady 
at Petersburg, who w^as in high confidence both 
with Peter and Catharine ; and who, it is boldly as- 
serted, was employed in sewing the prince's head to 
the body before it lay in state. Why the head of a 
poor man, sick in his bed, should be privately taken 
off, for no other purpose than sewdng it on again, is 
quite inconceivable. Still Mr. Coxe is disposed to 
believe that such was the case : he met with an in- 
timate acquaintance of the above-mentioned lady, 
who assured him that he always found her extremely 
averse to hold any discourse on the death of Alexis ; 
that she seemed exceedingly shocked (and well she 
might) whenever the topic was introduced, and no- 
thing further could be extorted from her than that she 
was the person ivho prepared the body for the ceremony 
of lying in state. Would the intimate acquaintance 
have " extorted" from Madame Cramer a direct 
falsehood % Was she to confess to an operation 
which she never performed, and which was much 
fitter for a surgeon than a delicate lady ? Yet, 
strange to say, this very unwillingness of Madame 
Cramer to enter upon the subject, and her declara- 
tion that she only prepared the body for the funeral, 
adds, in Mr. Coxe's mind, a great degree of confirm- 
ation. 

* Travels in Poland, Russia, &c., by W. Coxe, A.M., F.R.S., 
F.A.S., Rector of Bemerton. 

z 



266 MEMOIR OF 

But Mr. Coxe has *' an additional proof in favour of 
this fact," and from an English gentleman of un- 
doubted veracity, a Mr. Riest, who had it from Prince 
Cantimir's secretary, who was eighty years of age, 
and the said prince was in high favour with Peter, as 
he undoubtedly must have been to get from him 
such a secret. Mr. Coxe adds, that this fact (of 
beheading) appears so well attested, that many Ger- 
man historians have adopted it without reserve (and 
many of them are ready to adopt stranger things 
than this), and that in several of the genealogical 
tables of the imperial family, Alexis is inserted as 
beheaded."* It is surprising that a man of Mr. 
Coxe's sagacity should suffer himself to be so far 
led astray as to ground his belief on such inconclu- 
sive evidence. He admits, indeed, that a passage 
in Bruce's Memoirs seems to invalidate what he 
calls " this concurrent evidence," and to prove that 
he was poisoned. Brace's story is singularly curious, 
but it affords no such proof. It is as follows : — 

" On the next day (after the trial), his majesty, 
attended by all the senators and bishops, with several 
others of high rank, v/ent to the fort, and entered 
the apartments where the Tzarovitz was kept pris- 
oner. Some little time thereafter Marshal Vveyde 
came out, and ordered me to go to Mr. Bear's the 
druggist, whose shop was hard-by, and tell him to 
make the potion strong which he had bespoke, as the 
prince was then very ill. When I delivered this 
message to Mr. Bear, he turned quite pale, and fell 
a shaking and trembling, and appeared in the utmost 
confusion, which surprised me so much, that I asked 
him what was the matter with him, but he was un- 
able to return me any answer. In the mean time, 
the marshal himself came in, much in the same con- 
dition with the druggist, saying he ought to have 
been more expeditious, as the prince was very ill of 

* Coxe. 



PETER THE GREAT, 267 

. an apoplectic fit : upon this the drnggisi dehvered 
him a silver cup with a cover, which the marshal 
himself carried into the prince's apartments, stag- 
gering all the way as he went like one drunk. About 
half an hour after, the Tzar with all his attendants 
withdrew with very dismal countenances, and when 
the}^ went, the marshal ordered me to attend at the 
prince's apartment, and in case of any alteration, 
to inforai him immediately thereof: there were at 
that time two physicians and two surgeons in wait- 
ing, with whom, and the officer on guard, I dined on 
what had been dressed for the prince's dinner. The 
physicians were called in immediately after to attend 
the prince, who was struggling out of one convul- 
sion into another, and, after great agonies, expired 
at five o'clock in the afternoon.'^ 

Mr. Coxe, however, is so much prepossessed with 
the story of the decapitation as to say, " it by no 
means follows, even from this state of the case, 
that the Tzarovitz v^^as poisoned." For he asks, 
" Can we suppose that Peter would order a dose of 
poison to be prepared for his son at a chy mist's 
shop, and that Marshal Weyde would openly send 
for it, without the least mystery T May we not 
rather infer that the potion was a medicine similar 
to those which had been already prescribed for the 
prince, who had for some time been extremely in- 
disposed ? The fright of the chymist," he argues, 
*' might arise from thinking his own safety involved 
in the catastrophe ;" and he arrives at this most sin- 
gular conclusion, that " the agitation of Marshal 
Weyde will be still more satisfactorily accounted 
for, if, according to Busching, he was preparing to 
perform, or had already performed, the execution." 
Mr. Coxe is here evidently in a dilemma — if pre- 
paring for the operation, where was the need of 
the poison 1—if already performed, what was the 
use of the potion 1 If he was already poisoned, it 
could not be necessary to strike off his head — if be- 



268 MEMOIR OF 

headed, still less necessary to administer poison — if 
it was deemed necessary to behead him, why was 
it further necessary to sew the head on again, and 
so neatly that no one could know whether the head 
had ever been off? 

With regard to the poison, it should be repeated 
that Bruce is a very loose writer. If he had said 
draught instead of potion, a soothing draught or 
opiate to stay his convulsions (to which the family 
were subject), he would have been intelligible. One 
thing at least is certain, that between the poisoning 
and the beheading, the undetermined state of Mr. 
Coxe's opinion is quite sufficient to neutralize both. 

Voltaire took a very different and probably a 
sounder view of the idle reports circulating at the 
time in Europe. " How could the Tzar," says he, 
" have cut off the head of his son, when extreme 
unction was administered to him in the presence 
of all the court 1 Had he no head when the oil was 
poured on it 1 At what time might this head have 
been stitched on again to his body 1 The prince, 
from the reading of the sentence to his death, was 
not left alone one moment. The anecdote of his 
father's making use of the axe overthrows the story 
of his having been despatched by poison. If the 
Tzar had poisoned his son, this would have de- 
prived him of the advantage of ail he had been doing 
during the course of this extraordinary trial, to con- 
vince Europe of the right he had to punish : it would 
have brought a suspicion on the motives of the 
sentence, and would havp been to condemn himself. 
If he had resolved on Alexis' death, he would have 
caused the sentence to be executed ; was it not en- 
tirely in his power? Could a prudent person, a 
monarch who had attracted the eyes of all the world, 
bring himself basely to poison one whom he had a ; 
right to cut off with the sword of justice 1 Would 
he suffer his name to be transmitted to posterity in 
the heinous colours of a parricide, when he might 



PETER THE GREAT. 269 

SO easily have brought himself off only as a rigorous 
judged 

The conclusion to which this shrewd writer comes 
is this, — that Peter had more of the king than the 
father in him ; and that he sacrificed his own son to 
his views as founder and legislator, and to the in- 
terest of his nation, which, without this unhappy 
rigour, would have relapsed into the condition from 
which he had raised it ; that the sacrifice was not 
made to a mother-in-law, and the male child he had 
by her ; for that he had often threatened to disinherit 
him before Catharine had brought forth that son, 
the infirmities of whose infancy bespoke him to be 
short-lived, and who accordingly died soon after; 
that he was not that weak, timorous prince, as to 
run such a length purely to humour his wife. ^' In 
fine," he says, " on maturely considering this catas- 
trophe, the humane shudder, and the severe ap- 
prove."* 

If Alexis had honestly declared to his father, on 
his return from Naples, who his advisers were, the 
Tzar would, in all probability, have kept his solemn 
but conditional promise ; he did not do this, but pre- 
varicated, and stated what v^-as not the truth. It was, 
perhaps, not to be expected, that he should involve 
his mother and his sister in the list of those who were 
sure to undergo the most rigorous punishment, 
though their conduct was highly reprehensible. 
Among the "bushy beards" was one Dozitheus, 
bishop of Rostof, who had a revelation from God 
that Peter had not three months to live ; and he 
persuaded the weak woman Eudoxia, who with 
Mary was in the convent of Leesdal, that she should, 



* Voltaire, in his History of Charles XII., written thirty-eight 
years before, says, "The death of a son, who deserved cor- 
rection or disinheritance, would render Peter's memory odious, 
if the benefits derived from him by his subjects had not almost 
made cruelty towards his own nature pardonable." 
Z2 



270 MEMOIR OF 

jointly with the Prince Alexis, ascend the throne. 
She had assumed the name of Helena on entering the 
convent, but she now reassumed her proper name, 
laid aside her religious habit, caused herself to be 
styled Majesty^ and the name of Catharine to be 
expunged from the liturgy, and adopted the cere- 
monial dress of the Tzarinas. The bursar of the 
convent remonstrated with her on these proceed- 
ings, but Eudoxia haughtily answered, " Peter chas- 
tised the Strelitzes for affronting his mother, and 
my son Alexis will not suffer his to be insulted," — 
and immediately she confined the bursar to his cell. 
Three months had elapsed, and the Tzar was still 
living, and Eudoxia expostulated with the bishop ; 
" Madam," said he, " this is owing to my father's 
sins ; he is in purgatory, and has signified this to 
me." Thus did this artful priest contrive to put off 
the predicted event from month to month, and to 
extort money for thousands of requiems to be said 
to extract his father, piece by piece, out of purga- 
tory. One Gleboff, an officer, who had an intrigue 
with the repudiated Tzarina, was employed to cir- 
culate the prediction, on which, it is said, Alexis 
went abroad to wait for his father's death. The 
whole now transpired. The bishop and Gleboff 
were taken into custody. The princess Mary's let- 
ters to Dozitheus, and those of Helena to Gleboff, 
were publicly read before the senate. The princess 
was confined in the fortress of Schlusselbnrg, and 
Eudoxia removed to another convent, where she 
was kept a close prisoner. The priest and Gleboff, 
with all the accomplices in this fruitless and super- 
stitious intrigue, with others who were privy to 
Alexis' escape, — his confessor, governor, and mar- 
shal of his court, were put to the torture, and 
stsveral of them expired under it.* 

" Thus," says Voltaire, " we see at what a dear 

* Voltaire. 



PETER THE GREAT. 271 

rate did Peter the Great purchase the happiness 
which he procured to his people ; how many public 
and private impediments he had to surmount, in the 
midst of a long and difficult war ; with enemies 
abroad, rebels at home ; half his family plotting 
against him ; the majority of his priests obstinately 
declaring against his schemes ; almost the whole 
nation, for a long time, execrating its own happi- 
ness, of which it had not then a proper sense ; preju- 
dices to overcome ; discontents to allay ; till, at 
length, a new generation, formed by his care, should 
close with those ideas of glory and prosperity which 
their fathers could not bear." 



CHAPTER XIII. 



The Peace of Neustadt — Peter entreated to accept the Titles of 
Emperor, Great, and FoJher of his Country — Several new In- 

. stitutions and Manufactories establisned — An Embassy sent 
to China — Assemblies, or Soirdes, instituted — Peter's Mode of 
Living — Provides for the Succession. 

The long-continued war between Russia and Swe- 
den appeared, at length, to be drawing to a close. 
That arch-intriguer Goertz had concerted a grand 
plan, which was to reconcile Peter and Charles, 
drive George I. from the throne of England, and set 
the Pretender upon it, and to restore Stanislaus to 
that of Poland. The first hint of this project is sup- 
posed to have been suggested to Peter when he was 
last in Holland. Goertz knew that the Tzar had 
taken offence at Wismar being left to the King of 
Denmark, which, of right, belonged to the Duke of 
Mecklenburg, who had married his niece ; and of 
this feeling he availed himself. It was supposed 
that the Tzar had an interview with him at the 



272 MEMOIR OF ^ 

Hague, and the King of England remonstrated with 
him, but Peter satisfied him that it was not true. 
The plot, however, was laid, and discovered by inter- 
cepted letters of Goertz in Holland, and Gyllemberg 
the Swedish minister in London, both of whom, as 
well as their papers, were seized, one in London the 
other at Arnheim, and both were kept in confine- 
ment, like two criminals, for nearly six months. 

The Tzar was supposed to have listened to his 
projects, but without appearing to give them much 
encouragement. He was, however, so far prevailed 
on as to send General Bruce and Osterman as pleni- 
potentiaries to the island of Aland, where the con- 
ditions of peace were to be negotiated. In the 
mean time, the Tzar kept a fleet at sea, which cap- 
tured the Swedish ships and committed depredations 
along the whole coast ; but he evinced a willingness 
to listen to pacific overtures, by assenting to an ex- 
change of certain ofiicers of high rank, who had long 
been detained in the two countries as prisoners of 
war. To the complete success of Goertz's plan, 
which is not necessary here to be developed, Peter 
and Charles were required to enter into an ofl'ensive 
alliance, and a large combined army was to be landed 
in Scotland. Charles was to have the command of 
this invading force, destined to place the Pretender 
on the throne of England. 

Just at this moment, when Goertz and his confede- 
rates were, as Voltaire sa^^s, on the wished-for eve 
of throwing all Europe into universal confusion, a 
random shot from the works of Fredrikstadt, in Nor- 
way, quashed all their projects : Charles the XH. 
was killed, and Goertz beheaded at Stockholm. The 
crown of Sweden was transferred to Ulrica Eleo- 
nora, sister of Charles XH., who was married a short 
time before to the hereditary Prince of Hesse. It 
is said that when Peter heard of the death of Charles, 
he could not refrain from tears, — that he retired to 
conceal his weakness^ and that, on rejoining the 



PETER THE GREAT. 273 

company, he said, in a mournful tone, " My dear 
Charles, how much I lament you."* 

Shortly after the conclusion of these proceedings, 
on the 6th May, 1719, the Tzar's only remaining son, 
Peter Petrovitz, who had been declared hereditary 
prince of Muscovy, departed this life, at the age of 
five years, to the great grief of his parents, though 
his sickly constitution held out little or no hope that 
he would ever arrive at manhood. 

The affairs of Sweden underwent a complete 
change by the death of Charles ; instead of uniting 
with the Tzar against England, the new government 
was most glad to unite its forces to England against 
the Tzar. The Swedes were desirous of peace, and 
hoped that the appearance of a British fleet in the 
Baltic might be the means of procuring for them a 
more advantageous one. In the mean time the Tzar 
kept the sea with a fleet of twelve sail of the line, 
several frigates and large galleys, of which he was 
second in command, as vice-admiral under Admiral 
Apraxin. A smart engagement took place with a 
Swedish squadron, which ended in the Russians driv- 
ing them into port, and taking one ship of the line 
and two frigates. Just at this moment an English 
fleet, under Sir John Norris, made its appearance in 
the Baltic for the protection of Sweden. Peter, 
nothing intimidated, determined to keep the sea; 
and sent a message to the English admiral, demand- 
ing, in a peremptory manner, whether he had come 
merely as a friend to Sweden or as an enemy to 
Russia. The answer of the admiral was, that he 
had not yet received any orders to act for or against 
either power. The fact was, he was sent for no 
other purpose than to give confidence to Sweden, 
and thus to enable her probably to secure more ad- 
vantageous terms of peace. This, however, had not 
the desired efl*ect. Though the Enghsh fleet com- 

* Staehhn authority ; Wasselowski, privy counsellor. 



274 MEMOIR OF 

mitted no act of hostility, yet its junction with that 
of Sweden exasperated the Russians, who made 
dreadful havoc on the coasts of that unfortunate 
country, burning many thousand houses, and destroy- 
ing copper and iron-foundries, and other manufactur- 
ing buildings. On a descent made by them near 
Vasa, they burnt and destroyed forty villages, con- 
sisting of above a thousand houses, and spread deso- 
lation over the whole of that part of the country ; 
one account states, two towns, twenty-one castles 
or noblemen's houses, five hundred and thirty-five 
villages and hamlets, forty wells, sixteen magazines, 
and nine mines of iron. They destroyed corn and 
forage, and slew all the cattle and horses that they 
could not carry off; and to complete the misfortunes 
of the Swedes, Prince Galitzin attacked and carried 
four Swedish frigates. The destruction of the Swe- 
dish copper and iron- works, and the breaking down 
the mounds that preserved the mines from inunda- 
tion, making the ruin irretrievable, entailed misery 
and want on thousands that had subsisted by them. 

These devastations induced Sweden to demand a 
suspension of arms, and through the mediation of 
the Duke of Orleans, regent of France, the long- 
negotiated reconciliation was brought about ; a con- 
gress was held at Neustadt or Nystadt, in Finland, 
and the peace was concluded by ceding for ever to 
the Tzar all his conquests : thus leaving him sove- 
reign over Livonia, Esthonia, Ingria, Carelia, Wy- 
bourg, and the adjacent islands, and securing to him 
the dominion of the sea of Finland, which, with the 
surrounding coasts, he had purchased with the toils 
and perils of twenty years. The peace of Neu- 
stadt was signed by his minister Osterman and Gen- 
eral Bruce, on the 10th September, 1721. 

By this peace Peter had now attained the summit 
of his glory. Nothing could surpass t?ie joy which 
this event shed over the whole of Russia, the intelli- 
gence of which was forthwith despatched from one 



PETER THE GREAT. 275 

end of the empire to the other. Orders at the same 
time were sent to set at hberty all the Swedish 
prisoners in Siberia, and other remote provinces, 
offering those who might choose to remain the same 
rank in his army that they held in their own ; re- 
quiring them only to make their voluntary declara- 
tion in presence of the chief Swedish officers, about 
to return, that it might not afterward be said he had 
detained them contrary to their will, and the terms 
of the treaty. The generosity of Peter went so 
far as to give the strongest testimony and recom- 
mendation to those Swedish officers of whose valour 
and fidelity to their king and country he had been 
witness ; and the new King of Sweden attended to 
these testimonials, promoting, among others, Rear- 
admiral Ehrenschild to the rank of full admiral ; and 
Peter, on the departure of that gallant officer, with 
whom he had been personally engaged in combat, 
made him a present of his picture set with dia- 
monds. To the reformed Protestants of Riga he 
granted a church for the public exercise of their 
religion, which they could never obtain from the 
Swedish government ; conferring other privileges 
for the encouragement of foreigners of that com- 
munion to settle there. He restored to the Livo- 
nians the privileges they had been deprived of in the 
two last reigns, for the defence of which the unhappy 
Patkul may be said to have died a martyr. 

The Tzar appointed a day of public thanksgiving 
for the peace, a few days before which he made a 
communication to the following effect to the senate, 
" That since it had pleased God to heap on him so 
many blessings, during the late burdensome and 
protracted war, and to grant a peace so glorious and 
so advantageous for the whole empire, it was in- 
cumbent on him, as an act of justice, and in acknow- 
ledgment of the great mercies he had received, to 
confer some favour on the nation; he therefore 
thought it right to direct that a general amnesty 



276 



MEMOIR OF 



throughout the empire should be declared, not only 
for such whose crimes had deserved punishment, 
but to those who were un*aer sentence ; that all pub- 
lic debts owing by those who were unable to pay be 
remitted; that all poor subjects be absolved from all 
arrears of taxes and imposts due to the 'treasury, up 
to the day of the proclamation of the peace." The 
senate, having hereupon most humbly thanked his 
Tzarish majesty, in the name of the whole nation, 
for his paternal clemency and tenderness towards 
his subjects, orders were immediately despatched to 
set at liberty all persons in confinement in the prisons 
and the galleys, whether for debts or misdemeanors, 
or crimes of high-treason ; those of robbery and 
niiyder only excepted. 

• The senate, after much deliberation with the heads 
of the church, came to a resolution that his majesty, 
having acquired for the nation so much glory in the 
eyes of the whole world, should be entreated, as a 
token of acknowledgment on the part of his sub- 
jects, and after the example of other sovereigns, to 
accept and adopt the titles of " Peter the Great, 
Emperor of all the Russias, and Father of his Coun- 
try ;" praying him, in the name of all the states in 
the Russian empire, to permit them to make an 
offering of these titles for his acceptance, on the 
day of the celebration of the peace in the great 
cathedral. His majesty, after a considerable hesi- 
tation, at last consented ; and, on the day in ques- 
tion, after divine service, the Archbishop of Pies- 
cow delivered a speech, in which he enumerated all 
the glorious exploits of his majesty, and the favours 
he had heaped on the nation and his subjects during 
his reign. Then the great chancellor. Count Golof- 
kin, delivered a similar speech, in which, in the name 
of all the states of the empire, he humbly entreated 
the Tzar to accept the above-mentioned titles — 
stating that the title of Emperor was granted some 
ages ago to his majesty's illustrious ancestor by the 



PETER THE GREAT. 277 

gi*eat Roman emperor Maximilian I.* That the 
title of Great his majesty had acquired by his heroic 
deeds ; and, said he, as for* t^ie title of Father of 
HIS Country, we have thought fit to give it to your 
majesty, as being our Father, whom God has been 
pleased to grant us, in his great goodness, without 
any merit of our own. 

Then the whole senate thrice repeated, " Lon^ 
live Peter the Great, Emperor of all the Uussias, and 
Father of his Country /" and the whole assembly 
testified their applause, by the sound of trumpets 
and kettle-drums, and the roar of cannon from the 
ramparts, the admiralty, and one hundred and 
twenty-five galleys, which had arrived the same day^ 
and brought upwards of twenty thousand men who 
had been serving in Finland. In going out of the 
cathedral, their imperial majesties Were saluted with 
the acclamations of the people. They proceeded 
to the hall of the senate-house, where Prince Men^ 
zikoff and Count Apraxin declared the promotions 
of several military and naval officers, after AVhich 
the assembly sat down to table, when more than a 
thousand persons of both sexes were entertained. 
The conduits in the street ran with wine ; an ox was 
roasted whole and stuffed with fowls for the popu- 
lace, and the night concluded with illuminations and 
fireworks. ; The rejoicing continued for fifteen days, 
during which were held fiYe or six grand masquer- 
ades, in w^hich the whole court bore a part. 

The emperor had now leisure to look over those 
institutions and establishments which he had set on 
foot since the year 1718. In that year he entirely 
new-modelled a general police for the empire ; he 
commenced several projects for uniting rivers by 
means of canals ; he prohibited games of chance 

* In the archives of Russia is a despatch, of the date 1514, 
ratified with the seal of the Golden BuU, in wliich Maximihan 
addresses Vassili Ivanovitch as Kayser und Henscher aUer Ru^ 
tim—^Emperor and Rnler of all the Rnssias.— ^Couce. 

A a 



278 MEMOIR OF 

which might be called gambling ; he instituted or- 
phan-houses and a foundling-hospital ; he estab-^ 
lished a uniformity of weights and measures ; and 
endeavoured to settle, contrary to every principle 
of political economy, the prices of provisions, and a 
maximum to the luxury of dress : he caused the 
streets of Petersburg and Moscov^ to be paved, and 
cleared of swarms of beggars ; and made several 
regulations for safety, order, and cleanliness. He 
took off the restriction of his subjects travelling 
abroad, but ordered all the young nobility to take 
their wives with them, to learn and bring back the 
manners and deportment of the more civilized courts 
of Europe; and not only proclaimed certain privi- 
leges for strangers settling in the country, but gave 
assurances against any abuse on the part of the 
natives of such privileges. 

He established a manufactory of small arms, which 
he attended frequently in person; and he encouraged 
the erection of corn, powder, and saw-mills. He 
gave bounties to those who undertook the manufac- 
ture of woollen and linen cloth ; and by this liberal- 
ity he was soon enabled to clothe his army with 
home manufactures instead of purchasing them from 
Berlin and other places in Germany. He erected a 
board of mines, of which there were abundance, of 
iron, copper, gold, and silver, in his dominions, the 
duties of which board were chiefly to ascertain whe- 
ther the produce would exceed the expense of work- 
ing them. 

The foreign trade of Russia with Europe, which 
had hitherto been carried on at Archangel, was now 
mostly transferred to Petersburg and Riga; that 
with Persia, consisting chiefly of silk, centred at 
Astracan, and was conducted by the Armenians, 
whom Peter encouraged to settle there. A trade 
between Siberia and China had existed, long before 
the time of Peter the Great, by means of caravans, 
but it had more than once been interrupted ; the last 



PETER THE GREAT. 279 

time in consequence of some insult committed by 
the people of the caravans against one of the vicars 
of the Lama, and even against the Chinese. It was, 
however, renewed ; and the Emperor Kang-hee, 
finding his health decline, and ima'gining that Euro- 
pean physicians might be as much superior to the 
Chinese as he had proved European astronomers to 
be, desired the conductor of the caravan to request 
the Tzar would send him a physician. Mr. Bell of 
Antermony, who happened to be at that time at Pe- 
tersburg, volunteered to go in that capacity, and to 
accompany Mr. Lange, both of whom have published 
accounts of their travels. The ambassador was 
well received ; the surgeon found the emperor in 
good health ; but the caravan, on its return, com- 
mitted fresh outrages ; which gave such umbrage to 
the emperor, that Lange, the Russian resident, was 
sent away from Pekin, together with all the Russian 
merchants. Peter succeeded in recovering this 
branch of trade, which was, however, to be confined 
to the frontiers of the two empires, and none but a 
certain number of Russians were to be admitted 
into Pekin. That trade still exists ; and young Rus- 
sians are sent to Pekin to study the language, the 
better to conduct the trade on the frontiers ; but 
while in the capital, they are confined within the 
walls of their residence. 

On the Tzar's return to Moscow, he appointed a 
commission, of which Marshal Weyde was president, 
to inquire into certain abuses which had crept in 
during his absence. Among others was a charge 
against Prince Gagarin, governor of Siberia, of hav- 
ing, by means of Tartars, waylaid and robbed his 
majesty's caravan, coming from China, and killing 
several of the persons conducting it ; by which Ga- 
garin had accumulated immense wealth. The proofs 
produced so clearly established his guilt, that he 
was committed to the fortress till his majesty's 
pleasure should be known. The Tzar visited him in 



I* 



280 MEMOIR OF 

prison, and told him if he would make a fair con- 
fession of the whole, he would, on the faith of his 
royal word, grant him a pardon. He pleaded guilty, 
and signed a confession which he made in writing. 
It was read before the senate, in the presence of 
Gagarin, who, on being asked if he acknowledged 
the act, said he was innocent of the crime, but that 
the Tzar had frightened him so much that he was 
forced to write and sign it against his will. The 
Tzar, who was present, was confounded, and the 
senators amazed. The Tzar at last said he should 
have fair play for his life, and ordered the witnesses 
against him to be produced, at the head of whom 
appeared his own secretary, who proved the validity 
of the charges brought against him. The prince 
fell on his knees, and confessed he was unworthy of 
the royal clemency, The Tzar ordered a gallows, 
as high as Haman's, fifty cubits, to be erected before 
the senate-house, on which he was hanged, in the 
presence of the whole of the senators, to many of 
whom he was related.* 

In the midst of the weighty matters which fell 
under his consideration, he was not unmindful of 
cultivating among his subjects a taste for literature 
and the fine arts. He sent several young Russians 
to Holland and Italy, some to be instructed in paint- 
ing, and others in architecture. On their return the 
painters embellished several churches, both at Pe-. 
tersburg and Moscow ; and the architects were em- 
ployed in building churches, and palaces, and other 
public edifices. Of martial music he was particu- 
larly fond ', and he attempted to introduce the Italian 
opera, but that, however, appears to have failed. 
Scenes like those exhibited on the marriage of his 
jester, Sotof, seemed, as yet, to be more congenial 
with the taste of the rude Muscovite. 

The emperor had frequently endeavoured to bring 

* Bruce, Mottley, <&c 



PETER THE GREAT. 281 

the two sexes more frequently and publicly together, 
and had in some degree-succeeded. He now insti- 
tuted a regulation by which he should more effectu- 
ally ensure this intercourse, by soirees or conversa- 
ziones, which he wisely judged was the first step to 
smooth down the roughness of, and give a polish to, 
his untutored countrymen. The regulations them- 
selves show, in some degree, what the state of society 
was at that time. 1. A public notice was to be hung out 
at the house of assembly. 2. The company to assem- 
ble not sooner than five, nor continue later than ten. 
3. The master of the house to find chairs, candles, 
liquors, and all necessaries that might be required ; 
materials, as cards, &c. for gaming ; but not obliged 
to attend to or wait on his guests. 4. Every one to 
come and go when he pleases, within the prescribed 
hours. 5. Every one to sit, walk, play, or converse, 
just as it suits him ; any breach of etiquette to be 
punished, by the person committing it emptying the 
great eagle. 6. Noblemen, oflicers of state, of the 
army, and navy, respectable merchants, and ship- 
builders, with their wives and children, to have lib- 
erty to frequent these assemblies. A particular 
place to be assigned to the servants. 

These soirees are said to have been attended with 
the happiest effects, though the admission of such 
a mixed company was sometimes productive of 
rather awkward situations. The great propensity 
which the Russians generally had for strong liquors, 
the ladies as well as gentlemen, was occasionally 
indulged in to excess, and scenes occurred that 
would not be tolerated in civilized society. It re- 
quired time to get rid of this gross indulgence, if it 
has yet been entirely eradicated ; for it is stated on 
very competent authority that " intoxication is not 
disgraceful, — and, even among people of good con- 
dition, if a lady be overtaken in liquor, it is no sub- 
ject of reproach ;" they are said to be *' friendly, 
jovial, and courteous ; boast of their friendship, and 
Aa3 




288 



MEMOIR OF 



1 





those that are not able to stand find ready assist- 
ance from those who can."* 

Peter in his youth was strongly addicted to the 
irice of drinking ; but he had, for some years past, 
given it entirely up. He generally dined alone with 
Catharine, being waited on by a single page and a 
lady's maid. He would suffer no footman to remain 
in the room, except when he entertained company. 
He is reported to have said to the old Baron Mard- 
felt, the Prussian envoy, one day at table, " Hire- 
lings and lackeys never lose sight of their master's 
mouth : they are spies on all, he says, — misconstrue 
every thing, and consequently report every thing er- 
roneously, "f 

The emperor deemed it right to give the inhabit- 
ants of the ancient capital a repetition of the enter- 
tainment which had taken place at Petersburg, in 
celebration of the glorious peace. As introductory 
to this, he made his triumphal entry into Moscow, 
at the head of his guards, and passed through four 
triumphal arches, at each of which he was compli- 
mented by the several authorities. And as Alexan- 
der has recorded in the hut where Peter resided at 
Zaandam, ■ ' To a great man nothing is little," the 
emperor exhibited here many things that to a refined 
people would appear very trilling ; but he had an 
object in view and an end to attain in every thing 
he did. Thus, among the fetes, the balls, the mas- 
querades, and other diversions, which lasted six 
weeks,, was exhibited a little yacht completely 
rigged, of beautiful workmanship, splendidly gilt 
and painted, mounted with twelve small brass guns ; 
it was placed on a sledge drawn by horses, in which 
the emperor, the Duke of Holstein, and distinguished 
officers of the army and navy, to the number of 
twenty, dressed as seamen, drove for several days 

* Tooke's Russian Empire. 

t ^tsehlin ; authority, Ba ron Mardfelaf s rm^hsw. 



* PETER THE GREAT. 283 

through the streets of Moscow, with colours flying-, 
and a band of martial music ; and on stopping at the 
house of some one of the great officers of state, 
where they were to dine, a salute was fired from the 
brass guns. The inhabitants, who had never seen 
the sea, were delighted with this show, which gave 
them a much better idea of what a ship of war was 
than otherwise they could have conceived, — and so 
far the emperor's object was answered.* 

Honest John Bell, whose testimony no one will 
doubt, and who was present, says, that after the 
galle}'- came a frigate of sixteen small brass guns, 
completely rigged, manned with twelve youths, 
habited like Dutch skippers, in black velvet, who 
trimmed the sails and performed all the manoeuvres 
as of a ship at sea. Then followed richly-decorated 
barges, wherein sat the empress and the ladies of 
the court. There were also pilot-boats heaving the 
lead, and above thirty other vessels, pinnaces, wher- 
ries, &c., each filled with masqueraders in the dresses 
of different nations. All this was in the month of 
February, when the ground was covered with snow. 
The sledge on which the large ship was required 
above forty horses to draw it. Thus did this ex- 
traordinary man endeavour to apprize his inland 
subjects of Moscow, who had an aversion to mari- 
time affairs, in what a marine consisted, from which 
they had derived such great advantages.! 

As Moscow was the residence of great numbers 
of the ancient boyars, and the head-quarters of the 
clergy, who had not as yet reconciled themselves 
to the bold church reforms of the emperor, Peter 
thought it expedient to repeat, among the various 
diversions, one of those masquerades, or carnivals, 
which, by a farcical exaggeration, turned into ridi- 
cule the bushy-beards, and long coats, and rude cus- 
toms and ceremonies, to which many of the people 

'■ * Bruce*s Memoirs. t BelPs Travels in Russia. 



284 MEMOIR OF 

were still attached. The emperor knew enough of 
human nature to be convinced that raillery might 
succeed where severity failed to correct slight 
abuses and unseemly habits, and that they may be 

" Touch'd and shamed by ridicule alone." 

He found it absolutely necessary to restrain the 
clergy, who, by inculcating old usages and supersti- 
tious notions, carried the bulk of the people along 
with them, in opposition t^o his measures of reform. 
Russia had long been deluged with priests, monks, 
and nuns. From the first introduction of the Greek 
church, Muscovy had been a fertile soil for these 
unproductive drones. In Hackluyt's Collection of 
Voyages is a descriptive account of this country in 
verse, by Master George Turbervile, long before 
the time of Peter, pithy if not poetic, in which the 
writer says, — 

*' The cold is rare, the people rude, the prince so full of pride, 
The realm so stor'd with monks, and nunnes, and priests on 

every side, — 
The manners are so Turkic like, the men so full of guile, 
The women wanton, temples stufft with idols that defile, 
The seats that sacred ought to be, the customs are so quaint, 
As if I would describe the whole, I fear e my pen would faint."* 

In the thinly peopled state of Russia, Peter thought 
it bad policy to encourage the celibacy of monks 
and nuns ; and, therefore, to put a stop to young 
men and women cloistering themselves, in order to 
live in idleness at the public expense, and contribute 
nothing to the public good, he ordained that none 
of either sex should be admitted to a monastic life at 
a less age than fifty — declaring, as the groundwork 
of his reformation, that " he should think himself 
guilty of ingratitude to the Most High if, after having 
reformed the civil and military orders, he neglected 

* Hackluyt's Voyages; 



PETER THE GREAT. 285 

the spiritual." But in appointing himself Head of 
the church, he did not think it necessary to com- 
mence deacon, and go through all the gradations of 
church preferments, as he had done in the army and 
navy : these required encouragement and example ; 
but those were considered to want the curb rather 
tl\au the spur. 

paving lost his last remaining son and heir, Peter, 
with the advice of his council, thought it expedient 
to settle the question of succession ; as the future 
prosperity of the great empire, which he may be 
said to have created, depended on the choice of a 
sovereign who should tread in his steps, and perfect 
the vast designs which he had commenced, — the 
main objects of which were, to rescue his people 
from the barbarous ignorance in which he found 
them, and to place the Russian empire on an equal- 
ity with other European nations, in all the acquire- 
ments of a civilized society. Public notice was there- 
fore given by sound of trumpet, that all officers, civil 
and military, and all natural-born subjects inhabiting 
the capital, should repair to the Kremlin ; and here 
his majesty's pleasure v/as signified, that each and 
every man should swear to bear firm allegiance to 
the person whom it might please his imperial majesty 
to declare his successor, and acknowledge that per- 
son as emperor and sovereign of all the Russias^ It 
was not in the least known on whom the succession 
was meant to be conferred ; butjBruce, who had to 
administer the oath throughout one of the parishes, 
says, " The order struck a damp on the spirits of 
everybody, when they reflected on the undoubted 
title of the young Prince Peter, his majesty's grand- 
son, and only remaining male heir of the imperial 
family ; who was as promising and hopeful a young 
prince as any of his age could possibly be. This 
duty," he says, " took me no less than five weeks' 
close attendance from daylight in the morning till 
late at night by candles : this," he adds, " was to me 



286 MEMOIR OF 

the most disagreeable service I ever performed in 
Russia, as I was so w^ell acquainted w^ith the excel- 
lent temper and genius of the young prince, having 
had the honour to teach him the military exercises 
and fortification, and to whose prejudice this oath 
was certainly administered.''*, 

This, it will be admitted, was a proper feeling on 
the part of Bruce, who was the young prince's drill- 
master ; but the views of Peter, and the situation in 
which the country would be placed, in the event of 
his death, demanded that he should put himself above 
all family considerations. By the death of Alexis, 
who was as weak in intellect as wicked in disposi- 
tion, the progressive regeneration of Russia was in 
some degree secured : no focal point was now left 
for the " bushy beards" and disaffected boyars to 
rally round ; but Peter knew very well that he had 
only 

" scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it ;" 

and that, without a firm hand to guide the reins, and 
to watch attentively the movements of the wounded 
animal, she would " close and be herself again." 
The same sentiment might occur to him as to a 
great master of human nature,—" Wo unto the land 
that is governed by a child !" or, as the Scripture 
has it, "whose princes are children." 

* Bruce's Memoir* 



■ 1 



PETER THE GREAT. 287 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Peter directs his views towards Persia — Failure of the Expedi- 
tion — Trial and Punishment of certain Delinquents — Celebra- 
tion of the "Little Grandsire," the first germ of the Russian 

Navy. 

By the treaty which the Emperor of all the Russias 
had concluded with the Sublime Porte, and by which 
he had agreed to abandon Asoph and his establish- 
ments on the Palus Moeotis, he found himself com- 
pletely shut out from the navigation and commerce of 
the Black Sea ; which, however, at that time, con- . 
sideringthe jealousy and the great power of the Turk, 
and that he held possession of the whole of the coasts 
of that sea, could not have been of much importance 
to the advancement of his commercial prospects. His 
fleet, therefore, at Veronitz and on the Don, on which 
he had expended so much money, had now become 
of little use. It was not likely, however, that a 
mind like his, ever on the stretch in looking out for 
something new, and constantly employed on one 
scheme or another for the aggrandizement of his 
empire and the benefit of his subjects, could long 
remain at rest, now that the country was restored 
to a state of profound peace. It was very natural, 
therefore, that his attention should be drawn to- 
wards the Caspian Sea, on which the Russians, 
under his father, Alexis Michaelovitch, had followed, 
for a time, with some perseverance, the steps first 
pursued by the English adventurous merchants. 
This trade of the Russians, however, had been ere 
long annihilated by a rebellion of the Cossacks of 
the Don ; after which the Persian commerce waS' 



288 MEMOIR OF 

chiefly carried on at Astracan by Armenian mef^^ 
chants. 

An opporcunity now offered, which the emperor 
was not disposed to neglect^ of renewing the inter- 
course with the coasts of the Caspian Sea. The 
Shah of Persia, Hussein, who succeeded to the 
throne in the year 1694, was an indolent and effem- 
inate prince, who spent the greater part of his 
time in the seclusion of the haram, while the Tar- 
tars, the Monguls, and Afghans were laying waste 
his provinces. At length the Afghan prince, Meer 
Mahmoud, invaded Persia on one side, with an im- 
mense army, while the Lesgians, on the other, 
descending from the mountains of the Caucasus, 
entered Shirvan, one of its most valuable provinces ; 
they pillaged the whole country, and took posses- 
sion of the city of Schamachie, putting the inhabit- 
ants to the sv/ord, among whom were about three 
hundred Russians, settled there in trade. Mahmoud 
carried his conquests to Ispahan, and compelled the 
Shah to declare him his prime minister, and the pro- 
tector of Persia. 

Peter had therefore two powerful motives for" 
turning his attention towards Persia. The first was 
to inflict vengeance on the Lesgians for the pillage 
and massacre of his subjects on the western shores 
of the Caspian, and also to demand satisfaction of 
the usurper Mahmoud, as the ally of the Usbecks, 
who had plundered his caravan from China ; and the 
second was to see how matters stood between Shah 
Hussein and Mahmoud. But the real and ultimate 
object of his intended expedition was the establish- 
ment of an advantageous commerce, the aim and 
end of all his enterprises. Peter sought not for any 
extent of dominion. On this very occasion he said 
to Prince Cantimir, who was talking with him on 
the ease with which conquests were to be made in 
Persia, "It is not land that 1 want, but sea." 

The Caspian was not unknown to Peter. He had 



PETER THE GREAT. 2S9 

more than once sent expeditions to sound its waters 
and survey its coasts; and he had forwarded to the 
Royal Academy of Sciences, at Paris, a copy of a 
chart of these, made under his directions. The 
avowed object of the first expedition was to dis- 
cover the mouth of the River Daria, or the Amou- 
deria, a branch of the Oxus, which now falls into the 
Sea of Aral, but which it is intimated then fell into 
the Caspian, its current having been since turned by 
the Usbecks. Later discoveries have not confirmed 
this, though it has been thought probable that the 
shifting of the sandy surface may have given new 
directions to the streams that now fall into the Sea 
of Aral. Be that as it may, the Russians had orders 
to go up towards the source of this river, in order to 
discover the mines of gold said to exist on its shores. 
It is stated that those who were sent not only 
brought back specimens of gold, but found, at a con- 
siderable distance in the interior, a large stone build- 
ing, half buried in sand, within which were presses 
of a hard black wood, containing nearly three thou- 
sand volumes of books, of which, with great difii- 
culty, they were allowed to bring away three, the 
people considering both the building and the books 
as sacred monuments. The sheets are stated to re- 
semble the bark of trees, the characters were in 
horizontal lines, but whether they were to be read 
from right to left, or from left to right no one could 
tell They were supposed to be Calmuc or Mongul. 
The Tzar, it seems, considered them as a precious 
treasure. They found also, in the burying-places of 
the Calmucs, several small brass statues, among 
which were one of a Roman general crowned with 
laurel, two figures of men on horseback, with armour 
similar to that worn in the West in the twelfth century, 
and several Indian and Chinese idols, all of which 
the Tzar placed in his cabinet. This description 
applies, no doubt, to the ruins of Ourgantz, situated 
on an ancient branch of the Oxus. 
Bb 



290 MEMOIR OF 

Jolin Bell, of Antermony, who accompanied Dr. 
Blumentrost, the emperor's chief physician, on the 
present Persian expedition, mentions a similar build- 
ing on the banks of the Irtish, called Sedmy-'palatz^ 
or Seven Palaces, several of the rooms of which 
were filled with scrolls of glazed paper, some black, 
but mostly white, written in the Calmuc language. 
Some of these Tartars stated that the building was 
erected by Tamerlane, others by Gengis-Khan. The 
Tzar followed up the inquiry as to the ruins of Our- 
gantz, by sending Prince Bekewitz, with a consider- 
able number of troops, to visit the eastern shores 
of the Caspian, and to open a communication with 
the inhabitants of the intermediate country and 
Bokhara. The prince, after building a fort, proceeded 
into the interior, where he was arrested by the na- 
tives. They carried him to the encampment of the 
khan of the Turcomans, who received him kindly ; 
and having suffered greatly on his way thither for 
want of water, he was persuaded, on his return, to 
divide his escort into small parties. When they had 
all departed except the last, with whom was Beke- 
witz, the Turcomans fell upon them and cut them 
all to pieces. The rest were murdered in detail, 
with the exception of a few who had been left to 
take charge of the fort. 

The emperor had now, therefore, abundant mo- 
tives for an expedition to the Caspian, of which he 
resolved to take the command in person. He had 
besides received an insulting message from Mah- 
moud, to whom he had sent an ambassador, and had 
received, about the same time, repeated entreaties 
from Shah Hussein, the deposed monarchy implor- 
ing his majesty^s aid against the usurper. His fiirst 
object was to send down the Wolga to Astracan as 
many galleys and transports as would carry 30,000 
men. 

John Bell relates that, when the emperor reached 
SaratofF on the Volga, he appointed an interview 



PETER THE GREAT. 291 

with Ayuka-Khan, king of the Calmucs, who had 
pitched his tents on the east bank of that river. 
Ayuka and his queen were invited to dine on board 
the emperor's galley. He came on horseback, at- 
tended by his two sons and a troop of about fifty of 
his officers, all exceedingly well mounted. As he 
advanced, the emperor went on shore, saluted him, 
and taking him by the hand, conducted him on board 
the galley, where he introduced him to the empress, 
who was seated under an awning on the quarter- 
deck. The queen soon followed in a covered wheel- 
machine, attended by her daughter and two ladies 
and a troop of horsemen. The emperor went through 
the same ceremony as with the khan, and introduced 
her to the empress. The khan was a hearty and 
cheerful old man about seventy ; his queen fifty, — of 
a decent and cheerful deportment. The emperor inti- 
mated that he wished for ten thousand of his troops to 
accompany him into Persia. The khan replied that 
ten thousand were at his service, but thought five 
thousand would be quite enough and less inconve- 
nient ; and he not only gave orders for their march, 
but the^T- joined the emperor on the shores of the 
Caspian, at the time and place appointed. " Thus," 
says John Bell, " this treaty between two mighty 
monarchs was begun, carried on, and concluded, in 
less space of time than is usually employed by the 
plenipotentiaries of our western European monarchs 
in taking dinner." The empress gave the queen a 
gold repeating-watch set with diamonds, besides 
some pieces of brocade and other silks of value.* 
The preparations being all ready at Astracan, the 
expedition was joined by the emperor and his con- 
sort, and on the 18th July, the army, consisting of 
33,000 men of those warlike veterans, who had been 
engaged so long with the Swedes, embarked on board 

* Bell's Travels in Russia. — It is somewhat remarkable that 
3ruce never once mentions this highly respectable author and 
countryman as having formed a part of this expedition. 



292 MEMOIR OF 

two hundred and fifty galleys, attended by thirty-five 
store and hospital ships, under the command of Ad- 
miral Apraxin. On sailing down the western coast, 
one of the divisions lost sight of the admiral, and 
was obliged to anchor, having, as Bruce says, 
" neither pilot nor compass on board ;" an inconve- 
nience, it seems, under which the greater part of the 
fleet laboured. While at Bustroff, his majesty re- 
ceived intelligence from General Waterung that he 
had burnt and destroyed the capital city of the prov- 
ince, laid waste the whole country, and carried off 
all the inhabitants that he could meet with, old and 
young, of both sexes, amounting to many thousands. 
Having passed the island of Trenzini, the high 
mountains of the Caucasus opened out, appearing to 
hide their heads in the clouds. On the 28th the 
whole army landed at the mouth of the River Agre- 
chan, and after much difficulty hauled their galleys 
up on the shore. Here the Circassian and Daghis- 
tan Tartars brought their little wagons, horses, 
camels, and oxen for sale, and knowing the necessity 
the Russians had for them, they demanded six times 
their value. In their march to the Sulak, the heat 
was so intolerable that many of the men dropped by 
the way. Nor was this all ; Mr. Bell says, " that he 
observed, among the abundance of grass, great 
quantities of a certain herb, called Roman worm- 
wood, which the hungry horses greedily devoured ; 
and next morning they found about five hundred of 
them dead, on which the Kalmucs, who had just 
joined them, feasted for several days." Here the 
chief of the Daghistan Tartars welcomed his impe- 
rial majesty into his territories, and promised him 
all kinds of assistance and refreshments for the army. 
Such quantities of grapes, melons, pomegranates, 
and other fruits were brought to the camp, and de- 
voured by the men so voraciously, as to bring on 
fevers and fluxes. General Waterung here joined 
the army, bringing with him the chief o-f Andreof, 



PETER THE GREAT. 293 

whom the emperor ordered to be hanged the same 
day. This gave such offence to the people of Da- 
ghistan, that they determined to make reprisals on 
the Russians. 

Accordingly, numbers of armed men on horseback 
were now seen moving along the skirts of the moun- 
tains. The Tzar, riding along the guards, asked the 
men if their muskets were loaded ; being answered 
in the negative, he gave orders to load, and sum- 
moned the officers of his division to assemble at the 
head of the grenadier company, "where,'' says 
Bruce, " he reprimanded us severely for neglect of 
duty ; our swords were taken from us and put into a 
wagon ; the field officers were ordered to march on 
foot in one rank, the captains formed in three ranks 
behind them, and every officer was loaded with four 
heavy muskets on his shoulders. In this posture we 
marched nearly two hours, in the most intolerable 
heat, when the empress, being informed of our 
miserable situation, came up in her chariot with the 
utmost haste, and pleaded so effectually in our fa- 
vour, that we were released from our heavy burdens, 
had our swords restored, and were admitted to kiss 
his majesty's hand ; who told us that he had only 
punished the officers of his own guards, because 
they ought to give a good example to all the rest of 
the army."* 

It is admitted that Peter never spared himself in 
this campaign. During the march, he rode generally 
an English pad, about fourteen hands high, for which 
he had a particular liking, as it was very tractable 
and easy to mount ; but he very often walked His 
dress, when on a march, was a white nightcap, with 
a plain flapped hat over it, and a short dimity waist- 
coat ; but when any deputation or chieftain waited 
on him, he always received them in his regimentals, 
as colonel of the guards. His abstemiousness was 

* Bruce's Memoirs. 
B b 2 



2^94 MEMOIR OF 

proverbial. Mr. Beli says, " about midnight, after a 
harassing day among the hostile mountaineers, I 
went into the tent of Mr. Felton, his majesty's 
principal cook, where he was alone with a large 
saucepan of warm grout before him, made of buck- 
wheat with butter, which he told me was the re- 
mains of their majesties' supper, who ate of nothing 
else that evening, and who were just gone to bed."* 

At Tarku, the principal city of Daghistan, Captain 
Bruce says, " the ladies are incomparably beautiful, 
both in feature and shape. A great number of those 
of the highest rank and fashion paid a visit to her 
majesty in her tent, where they squatted themselves 
down on their Persian carpets cross-legged. Cath- 
arine, with her usual kindness, desired that the 
officers should be admitted to see the ladies, so that 
when one set had gratified their curiosity they should 
retire and make wa^^ for others. The visit was pro- 
longed till late, when these fair females got into their 
close carriages, and were escorted back by torch- 
light." 

At Baku and Derbent his majesty was greeted by 
the governors and the principal citizens, the latter 
of whom presented him with the keys of their city, 
offering to admit his troops into the citadel to gar- 
rison it for the protection of the place, which had 
long defended itself against the arms of the usurper 
Mahmoud. Thirteen provision-ships from Astracan 
arrived at a place ten or twelve miles to the south- 
ward of Derbent, v/hen a furious storm arose, which 
drove ashore and beat to pieces the whole of them, 
burying them entirely in the sand ; but the men were 
all saved. 

While the Tzar remained at Derbent he received 
several messages, — some from the Sophi of Persia, 
some from the Georgians, and others from the 
inhabitants of Shamachie, Baku, and Resht, all 

* Bell's Travels, 



PETER THE GREAT. 296 

imploring him to march with his army against the 
usurper, and offering to give up their several cities 
to him. Just, however, as the army was on the 
point of marching to the south, a Turkish envoy 
arrived at the camp, giving information that the 
Grand wSeignior, his master, had taken possession 
of Shamachie, and that the Porte was surprised his 
majesty should invade his territories while peace 
subsisted between them ; the preservation of which 
rendered it absolutely necessary that he should 
immediately withdraw his army from that district. 
There was some justice in this ; and the emperor, 
who appears not to have weighed well this matter 
when he undertook the expedition, now saw and 
admitted that the Turk had reason to complain ; and 
what was perhaps of greater moment to himself, he 
considered how rash and impolitic it would be to 
commence a war with this powerful neighbour, at a 
moment when he was at so great a distance from 
his own country with the flower of his army: he 
resolved therefore to trace backward his steps forth- 
with, recommending the provinces oppressed by the 
usurper to put themselves under the protection of 
the Turks. 

He was unwilling, however, that this costly expe- 
dition should be thought nugatory; and therefore, 
on the return of the arm}^, he ordered a strong 
^fortress and town to be erected at the point where 
the Agrechan and Sulak divide their waters, to 
which he gave the name of Swetago-Ki^est^ or Holy 
Cross ; and this fortress laid the foundation of the 
future progress of the Russians on the northern side 
of the Caucasian mountains. 

Nor did the failure of this expedition induce Peter 
the Great to give up his views on the Caspian. 
Bruce, who had wintered at Tzaritzee on the 
"Wolga, was ordered, in April, 1723, to proceed with 
a small force down the eastern shore of the Caspian, 
aivl to survey the gulfs, harbours, and rivers. They 



296 MEMOIR OF 

circumnavigated the whole of the Caspian ; and on 
their return by the western coast, Bruce visited the 
new works and town of Holy Cross, which had 
increased in wooden houses to such an extent as to 
aiford quarters for the whole of their little army. 
In the spring" of 1724, Bruce arrived at Moscow, and 
laid his chart of the Caspian before his majesty, who 
appeared to be much pleased with what had been 
done.* 

Whenever the emperor had occasion to be absent 
from either of his two capitals for any length of 
time, it would seem to have been his fate, that on 
his return, the congratulations and rejoicings of his 
subjects should be mixed up with some dreadful act 
of severity on his part. Indeed, the whole course of 
his life may be said to have been a series of sudden 
transitions from the opposite extremes of mirth and 
sorrow ; a constant round of vicissitudes, which, not 
always " happily," compelled him 

" To steer 
From grave to gay, from lively to severe." 

But, with a vigour of mind and body seldom equalled, 
and never perhaps exceeded, he seems to have set 
out, from the moment he had sole possession of the 
throne, with a fixed determination, per fas et nefas, 
to accomplish one great point, — the regeneration of 
his country ; and this may be considered, under all 
the circumstances, as one of the noblest designs that 
ever entered the head or heart of man. For this he 
submitted to toil through every condition of life, 
however laborious ; exposed himself to every hard- 
ship that the lowest of mankind are subject to, 
whether by sea or land; and, invested as he was 
with supreme and arbitrary power, contented him- 
self to rise by degrees through every subordinate 
yank, for the sake of example to others. It is not 

* Bruce's Memoirs. 



PETER THE GREAT. 297 

surprising, then, however much it is to be lamented, 
that he was sometimes driven to acts of great 
severity. 

On the present occasion of his return to Moscow, 
several offenders of high rank, in ojfhcial situations, 
were brought to trial before a competent tribunal, 
and were sentenced to undergo various punishments, 
— the knout, the battogues, fine, and imprisonment. 
Among the delinquents was one whom the emperor 
could have least suspected, and whose conduct gave 
him the greatest pain ; a man whom his majesty had 
raised, for his merit and superior talent, from the 
humble situation of a clerk in chancery, to be his 
vice-chancellor and prime minister, — the Baron 
Schaffiroff. Five different charges were exhibited 
against him. — 1. That he had conferred on his 
brother a title and appointment, unknown to the 
emperor and the senate. 2. That he had signed 
and issued certain orders and instruments unknown 
to the senate, and without having them registered. 
3. That in his capacity of the posts, he had, of his 
own authority, increased the postage of letters, and 
kept the money to himself. 4. That he had con- 
cealed two hundred thousand ducats in specie, and 
to the value of seventy thousand more in jewels, 
belonging to Prince Gagarin, although he himself 
had signed the order of the emperor, commanding 
every one who knew any thing of the effects of that 
criminal to make discovery of them. 5. That he 
had used opprobrious language to some of the sen- 
ators, in full senate, which was forbidden on pain of 
death. 

Being found guilty of these charges, he was sen- 
tenced to be beheaded. On the evening preceding 
the day of execution, public notice of it was pro- 
claimed by sound of trumpet; in consequence of 
which an immense crowd was assembled the follow^ 
ing morning before the senate-house, when Baron 
Schaffiroff was led to the scaffold, accompanied by 



298 MEMOIR OF 

two priests, who had been preparing him for death. 
His sentence was read aloud, which he heard with 
great resignation ; and having laid his head on the 
block, the instant the executioner lifted up the axe, 
a herald cried out, " Mercy to the criminal for his 
life, by command of his imperial majesty." On 
this he was removed from the scaffold and taken 
back to the prison of Preobrazinski. The emperor, 
in consideration of his past services, commuted his 
sentence of death for that of perpetual banishment 
into Siberia, with confiscation of all his property. 

Delinquencies of this kind, committed by his 
trusty servants, occasioned great annoyance to the 
emperor, who, however, rarely interfered with the 
sentence of the proper tribunal. In the present 
instance, the punishment was understood to have 
been commuted at the solicitation of Catharine, who 
entertained a high respect for Schaffiroif, a strong 
proof of which she gave by recalling him from 
banishment after the death of the emperor. He 
was, in fact, her principal agent in the business of 
the Pruth. 

Mr. Bell, who claims for himself, what has uni- 
versally been ceded to him, the right of being 
believed, on the ground that he shall say nothing 
of fact but what is true, nor any thing of opinion but 
what is sincere — Mr. Bell says, that " several foreign 
writers have misrepresented and traduced the real 
character of Peter the Great, by relating mean 
stories, most of them without the least ground of 
truth, whereby many people of good understanding 
have been misled, and even to this present time look 
on him to have been a vicious man, and a cruel 
tyrant, than which nothing could be more the re- 
verse of his true character." He adds that, many 
years after his death, he has heard officers talk of 
their old father Peter the Great, yet he never heard 
one of them produce a single instance of his having 



PETER THE GREAT. 299 

punished an honest man, or practised severity on 
any one that had not deserved it.* 

In the month of March, 1723, the emperor set out 
for Petersburg, whither the empress and the v^hole 
court followed. He had sent notice to the clergy 
there, previous to his setting out, that he had heard 
of their treatment of, and disputes with, the mem- 
bers of "the reformed church who had been encour- 
aged to settle in that capital. He told them that he 
expected not to be troubled with any grievances or 
complaints on that score after his arrival ; and that 
they must know he considered all the Protestant 
families equally entitled to his protection and be- 
nevolence with themselves. 

The emperor had just now a double motive for 
visiting Petersburg : the one was to found an Im- 
perial Academy of Sciences ; the other to erect a 
memorial to the Russian people of the benefits which 
the nation had acquired by the establishment of a 
navy. Peter had, no doubt, during his travels, ob- 
served the advantage of public societies for the pro- 
motion of literature, and more particularly had in 
his mind the Academic des Sciences of Paris, of 
which he was a member. He drew the plan of it 
himself, which was signed in February, 1724, but did 
not live to carry it into execution. His decease, 
however, did not prevent its completion ; which was 
left to the Empress Catharine, who, on the 1st of 
August, 1726, honoured the meeting with her pre- 
sence, when Professor Bulfinger, an eminent Ger- 
man naturalist, pronounced an oration on the ad- 
vances made by means of the loadstone and needle 
for the discovery of the longitude. The empress 
settled an annual fund of 5000Z. for the support of 
the academy; and fifteen members, eminent for 
learning and talents, were admitted and pensioned, 
under the title of ^* professors" in the various 

* Beirs Travels, 



300 MEMOIR OF 

branches of literature and science. It was strongly 
patronised in the reigns of Anne and Elizabeth, and 
Catharine 11. fixed it on a durable basis. Expedi» 
tions were sent out to every part of the world, but 
to Asia in particular. " In consequence of v/hich," 
says a recent writer, " perhaps no country can boasts 
within the space of a few years, such a number of 
excellent publications on its internal state, natural 
productions, topography, geography, and history, — 
on the manners, customs, and languages of the dif- 
ferent people, — as have issued from the press of 
the academy."* 

The next object that engaged the emperor's atten- 
tion, as may be readily conceived, was the state of 
the dock-yards and his ships of war; and, after 
selecting a certain number to be kept in com- 
mission for practising his seamen in the summer 
months, as well as to awe the Danes and Swedes, 
he laid down regulations for preserving the rest of 
his fleet in a state of ordinary. After this he went 
down to Cronstadt, hoisted his flag, and set sail, 
with the ostensible view of threatening Denmark, 
who had refused to acknowledge his title of em- 
peror, and to compel her to relinquish the Sound 
duties on Russian vessels, and also to restore to the 
Duke of Holstein his possessions, which had been 
seized in the course of the war ; but the real object 
was nothing more than that of exercising his fleet 
in the Gulf of Finland, from which service he re- 
turned to Petersburg on the 8th August. 

"Nothing is too little to a great man." In any 
other sovereign than Peter the Great, several of his 
actions would be set down as frivolous whims, childish 
diversions, and ludicrous absurdities ; and even in 
him they might so be considered, if the whole tenor 
of his life did not prove that he had a salutary 
motive in every thing of this kind which he put 

* Coxe's Travels. ^ 



PETER THE GREAT. 301 

m practice. Of this he now gave a striking in- 
stance. 

It may be recollected, as mentioned in the early 
part of this Memoir, that the first boat in which 
Peter set his foot was a httle skiff he had accident- 
ally cast his eye upon, in the river Yausa at Mos- 
cow, and the first of the kind that was built in Rus- 
sia, by a Dutch shipwright of the name of Brandt; 
that, having acquired the management of this boat, 
he ordered Brandt to build him a larger, and thus 
proceeding from step to step, he went on building 
larger and larger until he had acquired a formidable 
navy of ships of the line. This first little boat was 
cherished with great care at Moscow, and was 
named by Peter the '' Little Grandsire." It was now 
transported from Moscow to his new capital, as the 
more appropriate place for its future preservation. 
And in order to signahze the event of laying it up, 
as a monument to posterity, which might remind 
the Russian people from what a small beginning 
great things were capable of being accomplished, 
even in the short space of one man's life, he availed 
himself of the occasion to give a grand public en- 
tertainment, to which all the court and foreign min- 
isters were invited and to be present at The conse- 
cration of the Little Grandsire. This little skiff, dec- 
orated for the occasion, was sent down to Cronstadt 
on the deck of one of the emperor's galleys. 
Twenty-seven sail of ships of war being anchored 
in the form of a crescent, the emperor embarked in 
this boat, as steersman, while Prince Menzikoff and 
three admirals performed the office of rowers. It 
was first towed out by two yachts, and made a 
small circuit in the gulf ; and on returning to the 
view of the fleet, all the ships saluted with all their 
guns, to the number, as stated in one account, of 
three thousand ; and on rowing along the concave 
line of the fleet, every ship in succession struck its 
colours and fired a salute, which was answered by 
Co 



302 MEMOIR OF 

the little skiff by firing three small brass guns to 
each ship. It was then rowed into the harbour, 
and a few days afterward was sent up to Peters- 
burg, where its arrival was solemnized by a grand 
fete and masquerade upon the water. 

This memorable little boat of four oars is still 
held in great veneration, and carefully preserved in 
a small brick building within the fortress, as a me- 
morial to future ages of its being the origin of the 
Russian navy. The consecration of the Little 
Grandsire, and the solemn procession by which it 
was afterward conveyed to the fortress, were well 
calculated to excite the admiration of the people ; 
and by its being carefully kept, but always exposed 
to view, to remind them of the condition in which 
Peter found their marine, and the proud state in 
which he left it. At this time the fleet, which 
Peter may be said to have left as a legacy to the 
Russian nation, consisted, according to the returns 
of the admiralty, of forty-one ships of the line, in a 
condition for service at sea, carrying two thousand 
one hundred and six guns, manned with fourteen 
thousand nine hundred seamen, besides a proportion- 
ate number of frigates, galleys, and other smaller 
craft.* 



CHAPTER XV. 



The Coronation of Catharine — Sickness and Death of Petci 
the Great — His Character and Epitaph. 

Peter the Great, being now at peace with all the 
world, determined to give to his people a signal 
proof of his affection and gratitude for his beloved 
consort Catharine, by causing her to be solemnly 

* Scheltema^ 



PETER THE GREAT. 303 

crowned as empress, in the ancient city of Moscow 
— a public mark of esteem, which the whole nation 
was ready to acknowledge as her due : for what- 
ever opinions many of the old nobility and the 
clergy, who adhered to ancient usages, might enter- 
tain of the emperor's innovations, the conduct of 
Catharine, under every circumstance oj her life, 
had gained for her universal esteem. -It was the 
custom of Peter, whenever he was about to under- 
take any great measure, to assign his reasons for 
it in a public manifesto. That which he issued on 
the present occasion sets out with stating, what he 
observes no one can be ignorant of, that the custom 
of crowning their spouses was common among many 
Christian monarchs of the true Greek religion for 
ages past ; and he cites several instances in which 
it was done. He then observes, it is well known 
how much he has exposed his own person and faced 
the most imminent dangers for the sake of his dear 
country, in the course of a war of twenty years' 
duration, which, by the help of God, had now termi- 
nated in a manner honourable, glorious, and advan- 
tageous for the Russian empire. And he then goes 
on to say, " the empress Catharine, our dearest 
consort, was an important help to us in all these 
dangers, not in war alone, but in other expeditions, 
in which she voluntarily accompanied us, serving us 
with her able counsel, notwithstanding the natural 
weakness of her sex; more particularly at the bat- 
tle of the Pruth, where our army was reduced to 
twenty-two thousand men, while the Turks were 
two hundred and twenty thousand strong. It was 
in this desperate circumstance, above all others, 
that she signalized her zeal, by a courage superior 
to her sex, as is well known to the whole army 
throughout the empire. For these reasons, and in 
virtue of that power which God has given us, we 
are resolved to honour our spouse with the im^ 
perial crown, in acknowledgment for all her. services 
md fatigues." 



304 MEMOIR OF 

Magnificent preparations were ordered to be 
made at Moscow for this grand and imposing cere- 
mony. The foreign ministers were all invited to be 
present ; and orders were given that all necessary 
preparations should be made for the conveyance of 
themselves and their establishments from Peters- 
burg to Moscow. The Duchess of Courland, 
daughter of Peter's elder brother, and the Duke of 
Holstein, his intended son-in-law, were present ^ at 
the ceremony. 

From the descriptions that are given in detail, by 
various writers, nothing could exceed the magnifi- 
cence and splendour that appeared in the two 
cathedrals, and the richness of the dresses and the 
whole paraphernalia that were exhibited in the pro- ' 
cessions. ,When the assembly were all in their 
places in the grand cathedral, the Archbishop of 
Novogorod, advancing towards the empress, re- 
quested her to repeat aloud the creed of the ortho- 
dox faith, in the presence of her loyal subjects, 
which being done, she knelt on a cushion, and re- 
ceived the archbishop's benediction, who conse- 
crated her with the sign of the cross, and laying his 
hands on her, recited a prayer in which he says, 
" Look down from thy holy dwelling-place on 
high, and render worthy of thy sacred unction our 
great and orthodox Empress Catharine Alexowna, 
whom thou hast chosen to be the sovereign lady 
and ruler over thy people, and whom thou hast re- 
deemed by the precious blood of thy only Son. In- 
vest her with power ; crown her with a precious 
diadem ; grant her long life ; put the sceptre of sal- 
vation into her hands ; place her on the throne of 
justice ; defend her with the armour of the holy 
spirit ; make her arm strong ; put all infidel nations 
under her dominion ; let her heart be always in- 
clined to fear thee, and her will be always obedient 
to thine ; let her judge thy people righteously, do 
justice to the afflicted, relieve the children of the 



PETER THE GREAT. 305 

poor ; and let her at last obtain thy heavenly king- 
dom. 'V 

In the course of the ceremony, Peter himself 
robed Catharine in the imperial mantle, and placed 
the crown on her head ; and when she would have 
fallen on her knees he raised her ; and at the con- 
clusion the sceptre and glob^ were carried before 
her. In the procession to the cathedral the em- 
peror walked before her on foot, as captain of a new 
company, which he expressly created on that occa- 
sion, with the name of the Knights of the Empress. 
The dresses of this company of knights are de- 
scribed by Bruce as most splendid. In proceeding 
to the second cath-edral, Prince Menzikoff walked 
immediately behind the empress, supported by two 
officers of state, each carrying a splendid purse con- 
taining medals of gold and silver, which the prince 
scattered among the people. At the conclusion of 
the ceremony a grand entertainment was served 
up; and balls, masquerades, fireworks and illu- 
minations were continued for three days. 

In commemoration of this event, the emperor 
resolved on a promotion in the army and navy ; and 
though his selection had hitherto always been made 
solely for merit, and had answered well, on this 
occasion, for the first time, he wished to have the 
opinion of the officers on the subjects of his choice, 
to be declared by a species of ballot. The first on 
his list was Brigadier Knees Usupof, a major in the 
guards, for promotion to the rank of major-general. 
The officers of his regiment entitled to ballot were 
84 ; each had three balls, one for or deserving, the 
second against or undeserving, and the third indi- 
cating incapacity. The result was, for the first, 23 ; 
for the second, 32; and for the third, 29. His 
majesty was utterly confounded, as everybody 
knew the major to be a most able and gallant officer ; 
but the result determined him to think no more of 
^hat hypocritical system of balloting, being satisfied, 
C c 3 



306 MEMOIR OF 

no doubt, as every honest man must be, that it only 
affords the covert and cowardly means of gratifying, 
and carrying into practical effect, feelings of envy, 
hatred, and malice, v^ithout the risk of detection. 

In the same year v^^as celebrated the marriage of 
the emperor's eldest daughter Anne Petrowna v^^ith 
the Duke of Hoistein Gottorp, — a " princess," says 
Coxe, citing Bassewitz, " of majestic form and ex- 
pressive features, of an excellent and improved 
understanding, and of irreproachable morals. — 
While she was very young, Count Apraxin, a Rus- 
sian nobleman, paid his addresses to her, but was 
rejected with scorn. Not daunted with this repulse, 
he continued his courtship, and, finding her one day 
alone, threw himself at her feet, offered his sword 
and entreated her to put an end to his life and 
misery. * Give me the sword,' said the princess, 
stretching out her hand, ' you shall see that the 
daughter of your emperor has strength and spirit 
sufficient to rid herself of a wretch who insults her.' 
The count, apprehending that she might execute her 
threat, withdrew the sword, and demanded instant 
pardon ; and as the princess told the story with 
great humour, he became the derision of the court."* 

The rejoicings being finished which took place 
on this occasion, the emperor and court repaired to 
Petersburg. The emperor's health had for some 
time been giving way : he had a strangury in the 
neck of the bladder, which he concealed from his 
medical attendants, till in the summer of 1724 the 
symptoms became dangerous and attended with 
insupportable pain. When at length Dr. Bloumen- 
trost was made acquainted with the case, he saw 
at once the danger, and sent express for Dr. Bedloo, 
a celebrated physician of Moscow ; and Mr. Horn, 
an English surgeon, was called in to make use of 
the catheter. Peter, in this condition, was pre- 

* Coxe's Travels in Russia. 



PETER THE GREAT. 307 

vailed on to keep his room for nearly four months, 
after which, finding the pain abated and his strength 
increased, he gave orders for his yacht to be made 
ready and brought up the Neva opposite to his 
palace. He then acquainted Dr. Bloumentrost that 
he meant to go up to Schlusselburg, and visit the 
works 4)n lake Ladoga, and ordered him to attend 
him. The doctor remonstrated in the strongest 
terms against such an imprudent step, but Peter was 
resolved; and the doctor, with Mr. Paulson the 
surgeon, and Liphold the apothecar}^, embarked to 
attend him. The voyage commenced the beginning 
of October, and continued till the 5th of November, 
not without occasional symptoms of his complaint 
returning. 

Feeling himself well enough to remain on the 
water, and the weather continuing fine, instead of 
landing, he proceeded to Lachta, on the Gulf of 
Finland. He had scarcely anchored in port, when 
a boat full of soldiers and sailors was seen to be 
dashed on the rocks by the violence of the waves. 
Peter ordered out one of the small vessels to their 
assistance ; but, with that ardour and impatience 
inherent in his character, thinking the men sent did 
not sufficiently exert themselves, he took to his 
own boat, but not being able to advance near 
enough on account of a sand-bank, he waded up to 
the knees in water to get at the boat that was 
aground, and by his able assistance effected the 
safety of the poor people. At night he was seized 
with a fever and painful inflammation of the abdo- 
men. He was immediately conveyed to Petersburg, 
was pronounced dangerously ill, and from that time 
his old complaint made hasty progress from day to 
day. In the beginning of December his situation 
was so alarming, and the symptoms of an inflamma- 
tion in the intestines and bladder so evident, that a 
gangrene was appreherded. Acute and continual 
pain indicated the empe ror's approaching death, to 



S0§ MEMOIR OF 

which he resigned himself with heroic firmness, and 
expired on the 28th January, 1725.* 

(Voltaire says, " The burning heat within him 
kept him almost in a continual delirum. He was 
once for availing himself of a short interval of ease, 
by writing ; but the letters were so confused and 
out of shape that, after much difhcuity, only these 
words in the Russian language could be deciphered, 

Restore all to . He called for the Princess Ann 

Petrowna to dictate to her ; but when she presented 
herself before his bed, he had lost the use of his 
speech, and soon after fell into an agony, which 
lasted sixteen hours." 

This account is taken from the Memoirs of Count 
Bassewitz, the minister of the Duke of Holstein, 
which is not the only improbable story he has 
amused the world with on the subject of Peter the 
Great and his family. This in particular is obviously 
told, in order to insinuate that the emperor's inten- 
tion was to nominate his daughter Anne, the count's 
mistress, as his successor^-i^e^^ore all to^ — Anne. 
Indeed, this Holstein minister positively asserts 
that Peter the Great had formed the resolution of 
raising her to the throne. In all this there can be 
no great harm ; it may be true or it may be other- 
wise ; but his object was to vilify Catharine, and to 
trump up a story to prove that Peter's affections 
were entirely alienated from the empress some 
time before his death. ^ 

The story, as toldliy Bassewitz and the Austrian 
envoy, is at variance in many points. Catharine, 
we are assured, had a handsome young chamber- 
lain of the name of Moens or Moens de la Croix, 
whose siste-r Madame de Bale, or Madame Balke 

* This account is given by Siaehlin, on the authority of Paul- 
son, surgeon to the court, who died in 1780, aged upwards of 
80 years, and may therefore be considered correct ; though it Is 
said in some accounts that he caught his death by attending th^ 
ceremony of the " Benediction, of the waters, of the Neva.'^ 



PETER THE GREAT. 309 

(for they are not agreed even as to her name) was 
first lady of the bedchamber according to one, and 
dresser accordmg to the other, to the empress. The 
emperor, being suspicious of a secret connexion be- 
tween Catharine and Moens, left Petersburg on 
pretence of visiting a villa for a few days, but pri- 
vately returned to his winter palace in the capital ; 
from hence, as the story goes, he occasionally sent 
a confidential page with a complimentary message 
to the empress, as if he was in the country, with 
secret orders to observe her motions. From this 
page's information, the emperor on the third night 
surprised Catharine in an arbour of the garden 
with her favourite Moens, while his sister, Madame 
Balke, was in company with a page upon the watch 
without the arbour. Peter struck Catharine with 
his cane, as well as the page, who endeavoured to 
prevent him from entering the arbour, and then re- 
tired without uttering a single word. 

The story would of itself be utterly undeserving 
of credit, even if every act of Peter's life, and every 
trait in his character, did not give it the lie. That 
Peter the Great should appoint a page to be a spy 
on his wife's infidelity, that he should sujffer himself 
to be bearded by a page, that he should be an eye- 
witness to his wife's intrigues, and satisfy himself 
by tapping her on the shoulder with his cane, would 
be to convert the most determined man in the em- 
pire into a mere Jerry Sneak. Then indeed might 
it with sorrow be said, " How are the mighty 
fellen!" Had any such discovery taken place, it 
will scarcely be doubted that, judging from his hasty 
and passionate character operating on his infirmities, 
he would either have been thrown into a fit of cata- 
lepsy, or have run all four through the body in as 
many seconds. Voltaire's account of the only trans- 
action which could have given the sHghtest colour 
to the calumny, is as follows ; " These two persons" 
(the Moenses), he says, " might be said to govern the 



310 MEMOIR OP 

empress's household ; an accusation was brought 
against them for receiving presents, and they were 
imprisoned and brought to trial ;" he adds that " a 
prohibition had been issued, so long ago as 1714, 
forbidding all persons in public employments to take 
presents, under penalty of infamy and death; and 
that this prohibition had been several times renewed. 
The brother and sister were convicted ; and all who 
had either purchased or rewarded their services, 
were named in the sentence, except the Duke of\ 
Holstein and his minister Count Bassewitz /" " Per- 
haps," observes Voltaire, ^' the presents which this 
prince made to those who had contributed to bring 
about his marriage were not looked on as crimi- 
nal." Moens was sentenced to be beheaded, and 
his sister to receive eleven strokes with the knout : 
her two sons, a chamberlain, and a page, were de- 
graded and sent to the army in Persia, as common 
soldiers. 

Voltaire adds, " However shocking these severi- 
ties appear to us, they were perhaps necessary in a 
country where the support of the laws seems to re- / 
quire a tremendous rigour. The empress interceded 
for the lady's pardon, which the emperor refused, 
and was so offended at the request, that, striking a 
Venetian pier glass, he said to his consort, ' Thou 
seest that one blow of my hand can reduce that 
glass to the dust whence it came.' Catharine, with 
a look of submissive grief, said, * Well, you have 
broken one of the most valuable ornaments of your 
palace, and do you think it will make it the finer V 
and these words, with the air which accompanied 
them, appeased the emperor. Yet all the favour 
which his consort could obtain was, that her dresser 
should receive only five strokes instead of eleven." 
Now who is it from whom this story originates '? — 
M. Bassewitz ; and Voltaire adds, " This is a fact 
which I should not relate were it not attested by a 
liainister, who was an eyewitness^ and who, by his' 



I 



tETflR THE GREAT. 311 

})t6sents to the brother and sister, perhaps contrib^ 
Uted chiefly to their misfortune."* It would be 
Useless now to inquire into the truth of a story so 
highly improbable ; but Voltaire seems to believe it, 
because it is told by one who says he was an eye- 
witness ; but, supposing it to be true, what would 
be the inference ] why, that the whole story of the 
garden and the arbour and the page was a mali- 
cious and " viperous slander," and that Catharine 
was not only wholly innocent, but utterly uncon- 
scious of the breath of suspicion having soiled her 
fair fame. It would prove, first, that a hond fide 
trial had taken place of the two delinquents belong- 
ing to her household, on a charge of taking bribes 
for some unlawful purpose, and that Catharine, with 
her accustomed benevolence and humanity, was 
pleading for a mitigation of the pimishment of the 
female ; and secondly, which is more important, it 
would prove her innocence,— for no human being 
can possibly imagine that, if guilty, or even accused 
of infidelity, she would have had the hardihood to 
plead before her injured husband in behalf of a per- 
son who had acted the part of a procur'ess-^" the 
pander to her dishonour." The calumnious story 
of the garden may therefore be considered to fall 
to the ground, and as the malicious invention of 
Count Bassewitz, or of the person from whom he 
had it. 

But Count Bassewitz has not done yet. It does 
not appear, on what day this exhibition of demolish- 
ing the glass took place; but, according to this minis- 
ter, on the day subsequent to the execution of the 
sentence, Peter conveyed Catharine, in an open car- 
riage, under the gallows to which was nailed the head 
of Moens : the empress, without changing colour at 
this dreadful object, exclaimed, " What a pity it is 
that there i& sa much cdrraption among courtiers !" 

* Voltaire. 



312 MEMOIR OF 

Coxe, who relates this, observes that, " as this event 
was followed by Peter's death, and as Catharine re- 
called Madame Balke, she was suspected of shorten- 
ing the days of her husband by poison. But not- 
withstanding the critical situation of Catharine at 
the time of his decease, and her subsequent eleva- 
tion, this charge is destitute of proof." Mr. Coxe 
might have added — and of all probability. Voltaire 
avers that " Catharine had not left his bolster for 
three nights, and in her arms he expired on the 28th 
January, about four o'clock in the morning." 

There is something in the history of this family 
of Moens which is not very clear. Whether the 
story told by Mrs. Vigors, the wife of the British 
resident, confirmed by Bruce, and also by General 
Gordon, respecting the mistress of Peter, of the same 
name, has any connexion with the Moenses con- 
cerned in this transaction, which dates nearly thirty 
years from the former, there are now no means of 
knowing; but it may be remarked that, while it is told 
in three or four different ways by as many different 
writers, others who lived at the time, and therefore 
most likely to be acquainted with what occurred, 
are wholly silent as to any such transaction, — Nes- 
tesuranoi, Mottley, Lacombe, Steehlin. It has been 
revived, however, about two years ago, by a French 
general, and told in a style so theatrical, and Peter is 
made to perform the character of Othello in a manner 
so superlatively ludicrous, as to divest the story of 
all possible chance of obtaining belief.* 

It may be supposed that, as soon as the breath 
was out of the body of Peter, the party, and they 
who composed it were both numerous and respect- 
able, which favoured the son of the unfortunate 
Tzarovitz, would stand forward to urge his claim to 
the succession, in opposition to Catharine, whose 
friends loudly declared that the very act of corona- 

* Histoire de Russia, &c., par Segur. 



PETER THE GREAT. 313 

tion established her claim. In this short conflict it 
may be remarked, nat a syllable was uttered by the 
opposite party against her loyalty and fidelity to her 
deceased husband, which they would have been most 
eager to bring forward on such an occasion, had 
there existed the slightest suspicion of any improper 
conduct on her part. There were, indeed, thrown 
' out some vague insinuations, after she mounted the 
throne, of her having, as Coxe has observed, " short- 
ened the life of Peter by poison ;" but those reports, 
says Voltaire, " which were scattered abroad, were 
the mere opinions of some superficial foreigners" 
(he might have added, of the secretaries and hang- 
ers-on of the corps diplomatique), " who without 
any grounds, wantonly indulged the wretched plea- 
sure of imputing the worst of crimes to those whose 
interests they suppose it is to commit them." But, 
as this author very justly adds, " so far was it from 
being Catharine's interest that the emperor should 
be sent out of the world, that his preservation was, 
of all things, most necessary to her." rCatharine in 
fact had no reason to suppose, at least no public 
reason could be assigned, that Peter ever intended 
her for the succession ; it was contended indeed 
that the very act of coronation implied this, and 
more particularly as Peter placed the crown himself 
on her head ; but it does nut appear that he ever sig- 
nified any such intention, or that the coronation con- 
veyed any right to the succession. There were, be- 
sides, two heirs to the succession living, his daughter 
Anne Petrowna, wife to the Duke of Hoistein, and 
his grandson Peter, the issue of the unfortunate 
Alexis, both of whom had their partisans, and either 
of whom had a priority of claim to Catharine, j^ It is 
plain, therefore, that the life, and not the death of 
Peter, would be the object of her care and preserva- . 

iMenzikoff, who was well aware that no time was 

to be lost, assembled the friends of Catharine, while 

Dd 



314 MEMOIR OF 

Peter was on the eve of expiring, removed the trea- 
sure to the citadel, secured the generals of the guards, 
and gained over the archbishop of Novogorod. The 
empress was summoned from the couch of her dying 
consort, whose last sighs were breathed in her arms, 
to appear before the senators, the great officers of 
state, the bishops, and the officers of the army and 
navy, and delivered a speech before them, after which 
the air resounded with " Long live the Empress Cath- 
arine !" — a proclamation was immediately issued 
announcing her accession : and thus Catharine suc- 
ceeded to the throne on the very day of her hus- 
band's demise. * 

The body was removed into the great hall of the 
palace, followed by the imperial family, the senate, 
all persons of distinction, and an innumerable train of 
citizens ; it was then laid on a bed of state, and every- 
body admitted to kiss the hand of the deceased till 
the day of his interment, which was on the 21st 
March, 1725. On the 15th of the same month died 
the princess Natalia Petrowna, the emperor's third 
daughter by Catharine. The funeral obsequies of 
the father and daughter were performed together 
with great pomp and solemnity. 



The CHARACTER of Pctcr the Great, as has been 
shown in the course of this Memoir, was a strange 
compound of contradictions. Owing to the circum- 
stances in which he was placed, and the determina- 
tion to execute the plan he had conceived of re- 
modelling the customs and institutions of his coun- 
try, he had to maintain a constant struggle between 
his good and evil genius. Nothing was too great, 
nothing too little for his comprehensive mind. The 
noblest undertakings were mixed with the most 
farcical amusements ; and the most laudable institu- 
tions for the benefit and improvement of his subjects 
were followed by shaving their beards and docking 



PETER THE GREAT. 315 

their skirts; — kind-hearted benevolent, and humane, 
he set no value on human life. Owing to these, and 
many other incongruities, his character has neces- 
sarily been represented in various points of view 
and in various colours by his biographers. Of him, 
however, it can scarcely be said, that 

" The evil which men do, lives after them, 
The good is oft interred with their bones." 

With the exception of a few foreign writers, who 
have generally compiled their memoirs from polluted 
sources, the reverse of the aphorism may be applied 
to Peter. His memory, among his countrymen, who 
ought to be the best judges, and of whom he was at 
once the scourge and the benefactor, is held in the 
highest veneration, and is consecrated in their his- 
tory and their public monuments to everlasting 
fame. The magnificent equestrian statue, erected 
by Catharine II. ; the waxen figure of Peter in the 
museum of the academy founded by himself; the 
dress, the sword, and the hat which he wore at the 
battle of Pultowa, the last pierced through with a 
ball ; the horse that he rode in that battle ; the 
trousers, worstedstockings, shoes, and cap, which 
he wore at Zaandam, all in the same apartment ; 
his two favourite dogs, his turning-lathe and tools, 
with specimens of his workmanship ; the iron bar 
which he forged with his own hand at Olonitz ; the 
Little Grandsire, so carefully preserved as the first 
germ of the Russian navy ; and the wooden hut in 
which he lived while superintending the first foun- 
dation of Petersburg ; — these, and a thousand other 
tangible memorials, all preserved with the utmost 
care, speak in most intelligible language the opinion 
which the Russians hold of the Father of his Country. 

The following is transcribed from the History of 
Peter the Great, by Major-general Gordon, who had 
many opportunities of knowing personally, and hear- 



316 MEMOIR OF 

ing from others, the leading features of his char^ 
acter : — 

" Thus died Peter I. Emperor of Russia, who cer- 
tainly deserved the epithet Great as much as any 
prince that ever lived. "When we consider the 
method he took to reform his empire ; his drawing 
the natives, by degrees, into a taste for military 
affairs, beginning himself at the lowest degree to 
show example to others ; his travelling into foreign 
countries to observe the customs and manners of 
the inhabitants; his raising, disciplining, and sup- 
porting such great armies and fleets ; his introducing 
learning, manufactures, and handicrafts of all kinds ; 
with the great length to which he brought commerce 
and navigation, things altogether unknown to that 
people; the prudent measures he took to weaken 
and reduce his enemies ; in short, the reforming his 
country in every particular, as well the ecclesiastical 
state as the civil, is so extraordinary, that I do not 
believe, since the creation of the world, ever monarch 
was at so great pains, or did the like ; and all within 
the space of thirty years. The great fatigue he 
underwent, together with his other excesses, short- 
ened his days. He was severe rather than cruel, 
never pardoned a malefactor, except those of his 
own blood, and some few of his greatest favourites. 
He looked upon some things as crimes, which in 
other countries are not treated with that severity 
they deserve, — such as concussion and taking of 
bribes. His leaving the empire to that once mean 
woman, Catharine, was a surprise, not only to Rus- 
sia, but the whole world : yet, considering the great 
affection and esteem he always had for her, his con- 
fidence in her prudence and justice, and the many 
eminent services she had done him, it was the most 
prudent step he could take, and nothing less than 
what he ought to have done ; for if he had left the 
empire to his grandson, Prince Peter, who succeeded 
her, she and her children had been sent to Siberia, or 



PETER THE GREAT. 317 

some worse place, where she would have ended her 
days m misery ; the leaving her in possession of the 
whal£ was the only means to make her safe. 

'^•He was at little or no expense about his person; 
and by living rather like a private gentleman than a 
prince, he saved wholly that great expense which 
other monarchs are at in supporting the grandeur of 
their courts. Jde was a lover of company and a 
man of mifch humour and pleasantry, exceedingly 
facetious, and of vast natural parts. He took his 
bottle heartily, so must all the company ; for when 
he was merry himself, he loved to see everybody 
so ; though at the same time he could not endure 
habitual drinkers. He never kept guards about his 
person, nor was ever accompanied by above five or 
six persons, at most. He never could abide cere- 
mony, but loved to be spoken to frankly and without 
reserve, ^o sum up all, his fellow never sat upon 
that throne ; and I question very much, if ever an- 
other of so great abilities will succeed him !"*^ 

"I viewed," says Coxe, "not v^^ithout peculiar 
veneration and awe, the sepulchre which contains 
the body of Peter I. ; the sternness, or rather the 
ferocity of whose disposition neither spared age, 
nor sex, nor the dearest connexions : and who yet, 
with a strong degree of compunction, was accus- 
tomed to say, 'I can jcfiibrm my people, but I can- 
not reform myself.' \A royal historian has justly 
observed of Peter, that he redeemed the cruelties 
of a tyrant by the virtues of a legislator, i^ We must 
readily allow that he considerably reformed and civ- 
ilized his subjects ; that he created a navy, and new- 
modelled his army ; that he encouraged the arts and 
sciences, promoted agriculture and commerce, and 
laid the foundation of Russian grandeur. But, in- 
stead of exclaiming in the language of panegyric, 

* Gordon's History of Peter the Great. 
Dd2 



318 MEMOIR OF 

Erubesce, ars ! Hie vir maximus tibi nihil debuit ; 
Exulta, Natura 1 Hoc stupendium tuum est^ — 

we may, on the contrary, venture to regret that he 
was not taught the lessons of humanity; that his 
sublime but unruly genius was not controlled and 
improved by proper culture ; nor his savage nature 
corrected and softened by the refinements of art. 
And if Peter failed in enlightening the mass of his 
subjects to the full measure of his wishes, the failure 
was occasioned by his own precipitate temper, by 
the chimerical idea of introducing the arts and sci- 
ences by force, and of performing in a moment what 
can only be the gradual work of time, by violating 
the established customs of his people, and, in con- 
tradiction to the dictates of sound policy, requiring 
an immediate sacrifice of prejudices sanctioned by 
ages. In a word, his failure was the failure of a 
superior genius wandering without a guide ; and the 
greatest eulogium we can justly offer to his extra- 
ordinary character is, to allow that hi^ virtues were 
his own, and his defects those of education and 
country."! 

* Blush, Art ! this hero owed thee nothing ; 

Exult, Nature ! for this prodigy is all thy own. 
t Travels in Poland, Russia, &c., by W. Coxe, A.M. 



PETER THE GREAT. 319 

Mr. Mottley, in his second edition, has added the 
following epitaph, which he said he received from 
his worthy and ingenious friend, Christopher Wyvill, 
Esq., but does not know whether he was the author 
of it. 

EPITAPHIUM. 

Hie jacent 

Reliquiae, vix mortales, 

Petri Alexowitz 

Russiarum Imperatoris liaud opus est dicere, 

Honorem enim isti Diademati addidit, non 

recepit. 

Taceat Antiquitas, 

Cedat Alexander, 

Cedat CaBsar ; 

Se facilem prasbet Victoria 

Heroum Ductoribus, 

Milites vinci nescios Imperantibus; 

Sed Ille, 

Qui in morte sola requiescit, 

Non Famae avidos, 

Non Bello peritissimos, 

Non homines Mortem temnentes, 

Sed Bruta, vixque hnmani nominis dignos Subditos 

Invenit ; 

Etiam hos, compatriis ursis simillimos, et aversantes 

Expolivit ; 

Barbaritatis Hsereditariae tenebras ille Phoebus 

Fuga\it, 

Et propria virtute Germanorum Victores vicit. 

Alii felioissime Exercitus duxerunt, hie creavit. 

Erubesce, Ars ! 

Hie Vir maximus tibi nihil debuit : 

Exulta, Natura ! 

Hoc Stupendium tuum est. 



c 320 MEMOIR OF PETER THE GREAT. 

g 

1 [translation.] 

' Here lies all that could die 
\. of the immortal 

^ Peter Alexiovitz ; 

\ It is almost superfluous to add, 

^ Emperor of Russia : 

\ A Title 

' ^ which, instead of adding to his Glory, 

became glorious by his wearing it. 
Let Antiquity be dumb, 
nor boast her Alexander, 

or her C^sar ; 

How easy was Victory, 

to Leaders, who were follovv^ed by Heroes, 

and whose Soldiers felt a noble Disdain 

to be thought less awake than their Generals. 

But He, 

who in this Place first knew Rest, 

found Subjects base and unactive, 

unwarlike, — unlearned, — untractable, 

neither covetous of Glory, 

nor liberal of Danger ; 

Creatures with the names of Men, 

but with qualities rather brutal than rational. 

Yet even These 

He polished from their native Ruggedness : 

And breaking out, like a new Sun, 

to illuminate the Minds of a People,- ';- 

dispelled their Night of hereditary Darkness * 

Till, by Force of his invincible Influence, 

He had taught them to conquer 

even the Conquerors of Germany ! 

Other Princes have commanded victorious Armies ; 

This Commander created them ! 

Blush, O Art ! 

At a Hero who owed Thee nothing ; 

Exult, O Nature ! 

For Thine was this Prodigy. 



% 



THE END. 



iKl 20 






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